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Franco clinches Aqueduct fall, NYRA year-end riding titles; Rice leading fall meet owner/trainer, year-end trainer

by Mary Eddy

Manny Franco paced all riders at the Aqueduct fall meet to not only claim the riding title at the 31-day meeting with 37 wins, but also cement his place atop the yearly jockey standings at the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) for the third time with 238 wins across the circuit’s six race meets.

Franco, 29, celebrated five stakes scores at the Big A fall meet in the Grade 3 Pebbles [Implicated], the Grade 3 Comely [Raging Sea], the Tepin [Memorialize], the NYSSS Great White Way [Antonio of Venice] and the Alex M. Robb [Dr Ardito]. In all, Franco, who is represented by agent John Panagot, posted a 198-37-32-31 record with $2,699,549 in earnings at the fall meet, good for an 18.69 win percentage and in-the-money rate of 50.51 percent.

Franco expressed his gratitude for trainer Chad Brown, who trains three of Franco’s five stakes winners at the meet.

“He’s been a great help for me all year,” Franco said. “For the past five or six years, he’s helped me a lot. I want to say thanks to him and to his owners for giving me the opportunity to ride those kinds of horses.”

Among Franco’s favorite wins at the meet was the Alex M. Robb aboard the Brown-trained Dr Ardito, whom he has ridden in all but one of his 14 starts.

“He means a lot. He’s always going to be in my heart and I ride him in almost all his races,” Franco said. “He’s part of my career and I’m happy to be on him.”

Jose Lezcano finished second with 24 wins at the meet while Kendrick Carmouche took third with 23 wins.

Franco’s Big A fall meet victory adds to a stellar season for the native of Carolina, Puerto Rico, who completed his year with a NYRA record of 1,219-238-196-180 and earnings of $17,329,576. Franco, who was also NYRA’s year-end leading rider in 2018-19, was the leading rider at three other NYRA meetings this year, claiming the Aqueduct winter [63], Aqueduct spring [37] and Belmont at the Big A fall [34].

Among Franco’s 28 NYRA stakes wins were Grade 2 scores in the Sheepshead Bay [Higher Truth], Bowling Green [Channel Maker], and Mohegan Sun Ballston Spa [Evvie Jets]; and Grade 3 triumphs in the Withers [Hit Show], Bold Ruler [Durante] and the aforementioned Pebbles and Comely.

Franco also demonstrated his commitment to his mounts when notching multiple stakes victories on the year with horses like Dr Ardito [Haynesfield, Evan Shipman Handicap, Alex M. Robb], Law Professor [Queens County, Excelsior] and Spirit of St Louis [Ashley T. Cole, Mohawk].

“I feel great and I feel blessed,” said Franco. “It’s not easy to do this in this kind of colony of great riders, and I’m just thankful for all the support of the trainers and owners, my agent. And, I’m proud of myself.”

Franco added his successes are thanks in great part to Panagot.

“We’ll just keep with the same mind in the new year and work hard with my agent,” said Franco. “I think that’s key – to have a lot of communication. I think that helps it a lot, and to be here day in and day out.”

Irad Ortiz, Jr. claimed second in the year-end standings with 168 wins while Jose Ortiz finished third with 154 wins.

Linda Rice won Sunday’s second race with George’s Vice to earn a record 165th training win on the NYRA circuit for 2023. She captured her first year-end title with a record of 705-165-122-107, adding to a banner year that saw her finish as leading trainer at 5-of-6 NYRA meetings, including Aqueduct winter [37], spring [17] and fall [20 wins]; Belmont spring/summer [34], and Saratoga, where she closed a five-win deficit on the final two days to tie Chad Brown for top honors with 35 wins each. She completed the year with $10,375,322 in earnings at NYRA.

“I was really excited about winning the Belmont meet this year. I tied Todd [Pletcher] for the Belmont meet in 2011, but to win it outright was really special, because that’s the very marquee meet,” said Rice. “And then to come back and tie at Saratoga, that was probably the most exciting meet of my career. To be five down and pull it off and get the tie, that was amazing. What are we going to do for fun next?”

Rice, 59, sent out 11 horses to stakes scores on the NYRA circuit this season, including graded wins with Joey Freshwater [G3 Bay Shore] and Mommasgottarun [G3 Distaff Handicap] along with stakes winners Amanda’s Folly [Ticonderoga], Betsy Blue [Interborough], Downtown Mischief [Bouwerie, Cicada], El Grande O [Bertram F. Bongard, Sleepy Hollow], Hot Fudge [Garland of Roses], Ichiban [Fleet Indian], Les Bon Temps [NYSSS Park Avenue], Pioneering Spirit [Bernard Baruch, Knickerbocker], and Runaway Rumour [John F. Hettinger].

“I run a lot of horses in allowance races, claiming races, maiden races, some stakes – we’re always hoping to cut off the bottom end and improve the top end, and I think over the course of the last maybe eight years, we’ve done that,” Rice said.

Chad Brown [132] and Todd Pletcher [82] finished second and third, respectively, in the NYRA year-end trainer standings.

Rice closed out her career-best year with one more training title at NYRA, posting 20 wins to finish on top at the Big A fall meet over Chad Brown [17 wins] and Rudy Rodriguez [16 wins]. Highlights of the meet for Rice included a stakes victory with Hot Fudge in the $120,000 Garland of Roses, as well as a pair of allowance-level wins with the in-form Ain’t Broke. She completed the meeting with a record of 112-20-18-14 and earnings of $1,157,905, good for a win rate of 17.86 percent and in-the-money rate of 46.43 percent.

As an owner, Rice tied with Klaravich Stables for leading owner at the fall meet with seven wins each. Rice’s victories include a pair of scores with Kunshan Bridge in a December 1 starter allowance and a December 29 claiming tilt. Rice posted a record of 23-7-3-4 with $236,026 in earnings.

Sanford Goldfarb finished third in the fall meet owners’ standings with six wins.

Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables finished the year as NYRA’s leading owner for a fifth consecutive time, completing the season with a record of 235-62-39-33 and total purse earnings of $6,408,466. Their tremendous season included 15 stakes wins at NYRA, led by Grade 1 triumphs at Belmont Park with Marketsegmentation in the New York and at Saratoga with Program Trading in the Saratoga Derby Invitational and Randomized in the Alabama presented by Keeneland Sales.

Klaravich Stables’ additional stakes victories came in the Grade 2 Glens Falls [McKulick], Grade 2 Beldame [Randomized], Grade 3 Beaugay [Marketsegmentation], Grade 3 Lake George [Surge Capacity], and Grade 3 Waya [McKulick]; as well as the Ruthless [Interpolate], Gander [Neural Network], Wilton [Randomized], De La Rose [Technical Analysis], Noble Damsel [Gerrymander], Athenia [Technical Analysis] and Awad [Move to Gold].

Michael Dubb landed second in the year-end standings with 33 wins while Rice finished third with 31 wins.

At the Big A fall meet, Klaravich Stables’ tie with Rice gave them their 25th owners’ title at a NYRA meeting and fifth this year when posting seven wins [31-7-2-2] with $427,273 in earnings. Their wins included a strong allowance triumph with the Brown-trained and Franco-piloted Aggregation in November, and maiden scores with promising juvenile fillies Dynamic Pricing and Regulatory Risk.

Live racing resumes Monday at the Big A with an eight-race card to kick off the 2024 racing action on the NYRA circuit. First post is 12:50 p.m. Eastern.

America’s Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the fall meet at Aqueduct Racetrack on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Aqueduct Racetrack, and the best way to bet every race of the fall meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.