From wins and training titles to records and earnings, Linda Rice has built one of the most remarkable careers in American racing. On October 19, 2024, she became the all-time winningest female trainer in Thoroughbred history, and she has since gone on to set a NYRA single-season record and become the all-time leading trainer at Aqueduct Racetrack.
A Racing Family
Racing is deeply ingrained in Rice’s heritage. The foundation for her success began in the fields of Wisconsin, where she grew up breaking, training and developing young horses for her father, Clyde Rice. A highly successful Thoroughbred trainer himself, Clyde Rice sat atop the trainer standings in Pennsylvania for more than a decade. He grew up alongside Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas in central Wisconsin, and both men immersed themselves in the Thoroughbred industry — an influence that shaped Linda’s future. Born in Racine, Wisconsin, she moved with her family to Pennsylvania at about age nine, when her father set up near Penn National, and later attended Penn State. She and her brothers Wayne, Bryan and Curt all grew up working in their father’s barn.
Making History
After starting her career as an exercise rider and assistant trainer, Rice obtained her training license in 1987 and began saddling horses full-time on the New York and New Jersey circuit. Her first winner came that same year, Contraboss at Garden State Park. Victories and milestones soon followed. In 1998 she won her first Grade 1 with Things Change in the Spinaway at Saratoga, and that fall became the first woman to win a Grade 1 at Keeneland when Tenski captured the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup.
In 2000, Rice saddled City Zip to sweep Saratoga’s graded stakes for two-year-olds — the Sanford, Saratoga Special and Hopeful — earning the Fourstardave Award for Outstanding Achievement from the New York Turf Writers Association. In 2008 she sent out the top four finishers in the Mechanicville Stakes, a feat known ever since as the “Rice Superfecta.” A year later, she won the 2009 Saratoga training title, edging Todd Pletcher by a single victory to become the first woman ever to win a training title at a major American race meet.
A New York Powerhouse
Rice has been a fixture among New York’s leading trainers for more than two decades. She won back-to-back titles at Aqueduct, shared top honors at the 2011 Belmont Spring/Summer meet in dramatic fashion with her 1,000th career victory, and set a then-personal best of 102 wins in 2013. In 2015 she trained La Verdad to an Eclipse Award as champion female sprinter, and in January 2020 she recorded her 2,000th career win when Scilly Cay captured the Rego Park Stakes at Aqueduct. Her Grade 1 winners include Things Change, Tenski, City Zip, Lucifer’s Stone, Princess Violet, Voodoo Song and Palace, who won the Vanderbilt and the Forego at Saratoga in 2014.
Record-Breaking Seasons
The last several years have been the most successful of her career. Rice was NYRA’s leading trainer in 2023, topping $10 million in purse earnings for the first time and sharing the Saratoga training title with Chad Brown. On October 19, 2024, Treaty Obligation gave her career win No. 2,511 at Aqueduct, making her the all-time winningest female Thoroughbred trainer.
In 2025 she won 172 races on the NYRA circuit, a single-season record, and was NYRA’s leading trainer and leading owner.
In 2026 she won the final Aqueduct winter meet with a personal-best 62 wins, then took the spring title and the Belmont at the Big A spring/summer title. When racing at Aqueduct ended in June, she was the track’s all-time leading trainer with 1,222 wins. At Saratoga the barn won only four of its first 45 starts, then finished with 40 wins, her best summer at the Spa and two behind Chad Brown. On August 15 she won five races on one card, tying the Saratoga record. In the first fall meet at the new Belmont Park she was second in the standings behind Chad Brown, and by mid-October she led all NYRA trainers for 2026 with 163 wins on the circuit. As of October 13, 2026 her career record stood at 2,901 wins from 15,266 starts, with purse earnings of more than $133 million (Equibase).
Every Level of the Game
The stable runs horses from maiden claimers to graded stakes and doesn’t look down on any race. Much of the barn is built through the claim box. Rice claimed in Kentucky as well as New York, looking for new stock and stronger pedigrees. One of those claims was Joey Freshwater, taken for $50,000, who went on to win the Grade 3 Bay Shore at Aqueduct in 2023.
Lately she has also been rebuilding the young-horse side of the stable, with more 2-year-olds and better ones. That work showed at Saratoga in 2026. Velora and Scramjet won the $200,000 Seeking the Ante and Funny Cide in the meet’s final week, and Dargham won his debut on closing day.
“We try to play the game at every level, and we enjoy it.”
Linda Rice
Giving Back
Off the track, Rice has served on the board of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association since 2002 and chairs its Scholarship Committee — a post she sought from the moment she joined the board. The program has awarded well over a million dollars in grants supporting the educational goals of backstretch workers and their families.
The Stable
Linda Rice Racing races on the New York circuit at Belmont Park, which reopened in a new home on September 18, 2026, and spends the summer at Saratoga Race Course. Rice is assisted by longtime assistant trainer Marsha Barrs and a dedicated team of grooms, hotwalkers and exercise riders whose care and horsemanship are the foundation of the stable’s success.
