After Palace won the six-furlong Alfred G.
Vanderbilt Handicap on August 2, trainer Linda Rice was unsure whether she
should have the five-year-old stretch out to seven furlongs for the Forego
on August 30 at Saratoga or stay at six furlongs in the Vosburgh
Invitational on September 27 at
Belmont Park.
“I just trained (Palace) into the (Forego after his
Vanderbilt win), and he was training really well, and on the morning of the race
he was bucking and playing,” Rice remarked. “I knew right then I was going to have
to try him.”
Palace took advantage of the opportunity to score his second straight Grade 1
victory when posting a 3 1/2-length win in the Forego and, according to Rice,
will try for a Grade 1 hat trick by making his next start in the $400,000 Vosburgh, one of six graded stakes on
Belmont’s Super Saturday program.
“I’m not the only person who thought (Palace’s) best
distance was six furlongs,” Rice admitted. “Most people did. His record at
three-quarters (of a mile) is better than it was at seven (furlongs).
“After the
race, I was happy and relieved. I didn’t want to make a mistake with him; he’s
such a nice horse. There are other people who might have waited for the Vosburgh
instead of bringing him back going seven-eighths, but you never know when
something is going to go wrong with horses, and you’re sitting with a Grade 1 in
front of you with a $500,000 purse. Sometimes, you can’t over-think these
things.”
Rice and owner Antonino Miuccio claimed Palace for $20,000
out of a maiden win at Belmont Park in October 2012, and son of City Zip
gradually ascended the ranks before registering his first stakes victory in the
Chowder’s First overnight stakes one year ago at Saratoga. Since then, the bay has
added scores in the Hudson Handicap, Fall Highweight Handicap and True North in addition to his Vosburgh and Forego triumphs.
“One of the keys is, every time it looks like he needs a
rest we give it to him,” Rice explained. “I think that has allowed him to go from
winning the Hudson and the Chowder’s First to winning Grade 1s, and that’s a
tribute to my client, Antonino Miuccio.”
In addition, Rice said one of the keys to getting Palace to
run to his best form is to let him take advantage of his speed.
“He’s got speed, but he doesn’t like to be rushed,” she clarified. “I think we made a mistake
(when he was second by 6 1/4 lengths in the Belmont Sprint Championship in July). He really enjoys being settled, taken a hold of, and sitting behind fast fractions. In the
(Belmont Sprint
Championship), they went too slow. He needed to be on the lead. He can be on the
lead without rushing him; he has natural speed.”
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