McCarthy, Rice, Magee Claim Laurel Winter-Spring Meet Titles
McCarthy, Rice, Magee Claim Laurel Winter-Spring Meet Titles
Mandatory Payouts in Late Pick 5, Rainbow 6
Preakness Meet at Pimlico Opens Thursday, May 11
LAUREL, MD – Jockey Trevor McCarthy, approaching his 1,000th career victory, and trainers Linda Rice and Kieron Magee were each crowned meet champions on closing day of Laurel Park’s 56-day winter-spring stand Sunday.
McCarthy, who turns 23 May 16, finished with an 12-win advantage over runner-up Horacio Karamanos, 67-56, to earn his sixth individual meet title in Maryland, where he ended the year with the most victories in 2014 and 2016.
Four of McCarthy’s championships have come at Laurel Park including last year’s winter-spring meet. McCarthy, who rode out of town on Saturday, picked up his lone victory Sunday on Miss Swisher ($7.40) in the eighth, allowing Magee to tie Rice for leading trainer at 27 wins apiece.
McCarthy has 996 career victories heading into the 12-day Preakness Meet at Pimlico which opens Thursday, May 11.
Among McCarthy’s wins were seven stakes: the Fire Plug (Imperial Hint), Marshua (Star Super), Frank Whiteley Jr. (High Roller), Nellie Morse and Maryland Racing Media (Winter), Miracle Wood (O Dionysus) and Dahlia (Danilovna).
“It was a super meet. My agent, Scott Silver, did an awesome job. We’re a good team,” McCarthy said. “We work well together and we’ve had a lot of success, so I want to thank him and thank all the trainers. I really rode for some good outfits this meet.
“Every horse and every trainer is definitely a plus to us,” he added. “All the opportunities I’ve gotten and all the luck I’ve gotten also, it’s just worked out. I’m definitely looking forward to Pimlico. Hopefully we can win a title there this year, also. It’ll be fun.”
Magee, 56, Maryland’s leading trainer in annual wins since 2014, trailed Rice by one win heading into Sunday with two chances to tie after The Pulse was scratched from the ninth as a main-track-only entrant. He finished off the board with Tambourin in the sixth before Miss Swisher’s dominating victory.
Magee topped the winter-spring meet with 128 starters. He has now won or shared seven career individual meet titles in Maryland.
“I’m thrilled to tie. I couldn’t be happier. Trevor and me together again, I love it,” Magee said. “We came into the meet slow. For three or four weeks we were sort of dead in the water and then we sort of picked it up and things turned around. We claimed some horses, made some good ones and some bad ones, but that’s the game. Pimlico’s home for me. I can’t wait for the 12 days.”
Rice, 53, without a starter Sunday, recorded at least one win on 19 of the 28 days where she ran horses, winning multiple races on the same card eight times. She had a streak of six consecutive wins between March 25 and April 7, and ended the meet on a four-race win streak to overtake Kieron Magee and Claudio Gonzalez.
The meet statistics were staggering for Rice, whose horses won at a 53 percent clip (27-for-51) and finished in the top three 40 times (78 percent). She also led all trainers in purses earned with $836,430, with Gonzalez second at $693,653.
It is the sixth career training title for Rice and first outside of New York. She becomes the second woman to lead the trainer standings in Laurel’s 106-year history and second straight following Mary Eppler, who captured the 2016 fall meet championship that ended Dec. 31.
Among Rice’s victories, two came in stakes – High Ridge Road in the Barbara Fritchie (G2) and Matt King Coal in the Harrison E. Johnson. Rice said Matt King Coal is under consideration for the $300,000 Pimlico Special (G3) May 19.
“We were kind of surprised at first that we were in the running, but I grew up in Pennsylvania and spent my childhood there and my father raced at Laurel, so it’s pretty cool to share a training title there,” Rice said. “We got some good results there. Clearly my horses have liked the track, liked the configuration of the track as well, and because of that I continued to run horses there. Since then I have a string stabled down there now, and I think it’s a good addition to my New York business.”
Sunday’s program featured mandatory payouts in the 50-cent Late Pick 5, offering an industry-low 12 percent takeout, and 20-cent Rainbow 6, both of which began with carryovers from Saturday.
There was a $3,596 in the Late Pick 5, which returned $10,849 for tickets with all five winners. The Rainbow 6 began with a jackpot carryover of $10,895, and tickets with all six winners were worth $8,899.62.
The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day’s pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool. However, on days when a mandatory payout is scheduled the entire pool is shared by those holding tickets with the most winners.
Notes: Jockeys Sheldon Russell and Jevian Toledo each finished the meet with riding doubles. Russell swept the early daily double with Northern Eclipse ($8.60) in the first and Impressive Way ($7.40) in the second, while Toledo also had back-to-back winners with Spin Move ($5.60) in the fifth and Best Yes ($12.20) in the sixth.
