Manny Franco, Linda Rice top Aqueduct spring meet again

Manny Franco and Linda Rice left Aqueduct’s spring meet looking less like hot hands than permanent fixtures. Franco finished with 22 wins and Rice with 21, giving the Big A another month in which two of New York racing’s most familiar names controlled the headline races and the grind in between.

The spring session ran from April 2 through April 26, and Franco’s title was his fourth spring-meet riding crown, adding to wins in 2019, 2023 and 2024. Over 103 starts, the 31-year-old rider compiled a 103-22-28-16 record, earned $1,518,315 in purses, won at a 21.36 percent clip and hit the board in 64.08 percent of his mounts. His meet was built less on one splashy afternoon than on steady production: a stakes victory aboard the Rice-trained Hot Currency in the NYSSS Fourstar Crook on April 11, maiden wins with All of It on April 16 and Homewood Hustle on April 18, and three-win days on three straight cards from April 18 through April 23.

That kind of stretch is what makes a meet title matter. Franco’s volume was matched by efficiency, and the numbers show a rider who kept finding the right place to land. He said the title gave him a confidence lift heading into Kentucky Derby weekend at Churchill Downs, where he was slated to ride Albus in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby along with other stakes horses on the card.

Rice’s hold on the spring meet was even broader. She won the training title for the fourth straight time and seventh overall, finishing with a 79-21-19-11 mark and $1,180,564 in purse earnings. Her win rate was 26.58 percent, and her in-the-money rate was 64.56 percent. Rice also led the owners standings, underscoring how far her influence reached across the meet. NYRA said the spring title followed a winter meet in which she won 62 races and a fall meet in which she added 31 more, a run that has made her one of the most efficient operations in New York.

Rice has said she tries not to overreach with her horses, mapping starts around distance and surface rather than forcing spots. That approach was on display again at Aqueduct, where tactical placement and sharp preparation mattered as much as raw talent. With Belmont at the Big A and the rest of the spring-summer season ahead, Franco and Rice have again turned routine success into a circuit advantage.