SARATOGA SPRINGS — For trainer Linda Rice, the 2023 Saratoga Race Course meet was an exquisitely carved pair of bookends.
With a long stack of bestsellers between them.
She won the first race of the meet, with Bustin Bay on opening day, and, 409 races later, won the last race of the meet on Monday, with Lt. Mitchell.
That gave her a total of 35 winners for the meet and completed a cliffhanger ending, tying Chad Brown for the training championship.
Brown, who has now won or shared the championship named for the late Hall of Famer Allen Jerkens six times since 2016, did not have any winners on Monday, while Rice won the Bernard Baruch with Pioneering Spirit and the last race of the meet with Lt. Mitchell.
Rice also won a Saratoga training title in 2009, with 20 winners to 19 for Todd Pletcher. The last time there was a tie for the championship was 1997, when Bill Mott and John Kimmel each had 15 wins.
“They were so far apart, it’s hard to tell,” Rice said. “They’re both special in their own way. You never take the fun out of the first one, and, of course, this is a win and a tie at the same time. But it’s been a great year, a lot of fun. There’s always a little heartache in the middle, the woulda, coulda, shouldas, but it’s been a great meet.”
Trailing Brown by two heading into the final week of the meet, Rice said on Wednesday that winning the title was “unlikely.” She didn’t say it was impossible, though, and after a big day on Sunday to get back within two, her barn made one big final push on Monday to draw even at the end.
“And it was pretty messy in between,” Rice said, in reference to the span from opening day to closing day.
“We won three yesterday [Sunday]. That did it. That gave us a chance. So I thought it was pretty unlikely, but you never know. The day before, we were second beaten a neck, fourth beaten a head, but then yesterday, after winning three, I thought, ‘Well, we have a chance.’”
Among Brown’s 11 stakes wins at the meet, Randomized (Wilton, Grade I Alabama) and Carl Spackler (Grade II National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Grade III Saranac) were dual winners.
He also won the Grade I Diana (Whitebeam) on opening weekend for the eighth time overall and seventh time in the last eight years.
Meanwhile, Irad Ortiz, Jr. didn’t have any winners on Monday, but had the jockey championship mathematically clinched with two racing days left, and finished with 61 victories. It was his fifth Saratoga title since 2015.
“Oh, really?,” Ortiz said, when informed on Sunday that he had hit 60 winners at the meet for the first time. “We worked so hard to get as many wins as we can, and it’s great to get 60. It’s not easy.”
Ortiz also won Saratoga riding titles, named for Hall of Famer Angel Cordero, Jr., in 2015, with 57 winners, 2018 (52), 2020 (59) and 2022 (55).
He won nine graded stakes at this meet, including four of the 17 Grade I races on the calendar. Those included the A.G. Vanderbilt (Elite Power), the Whitney (White Abarrio), the Allen Jerkens (One in Vermillion) and the Spinaway (Brightwork).
“It feels great, believe me,” Ortiz said. “It’s a place where you want to do your best and try to win. We ended up in a good position the last week. What can I say, but thanks to every owner and trainer for supporting me, and my agent Steve Rushing.”
GAZETTE HANDICAPPERS
For the second year in a row, Gene Kershner, the racing correspondent for the Buffalo News, finished with the highest total of winners picked (114 out of 407 races, 28%) among the Daily Gazette’s four “At the Track” daily handicappers.
Rounding out the rest of the handicappers, Matt Donato was 105-for-407 (25.8%), Jeff Carle was 96-for-405 (23.7%) and NYRA Bets was 99-for-406 (24.4%).
Contact Mike MacAdam at mikemac@dailygazette.com. Follow on X @Mike_MacAdam.