I've not flown a rascal, but there are a few at my club that get flown around quite a bit. It doesn't appear to fly like a trainer, at least not the way the guys here fly it. It's a lot cleaner, and therefore can travel a lot faster. I haven't seen anyone try to spin it, but it is capible of things like outside loops that most trainers can't do in their "stock" configuration. I talked with one of the pilots a bit about it, he said it was more netural than he expected, making it a lot of fun, but less like the trainer-like floater it looks like, and his flights bear that out.

I haven't seen anyone have ground handling troubles with the Rascal, but the gear is set a bit narrow, so it might be harder to learn takeoffs with.

This really isn't quite enough information, but based on what little I do know, I'd suggest going for the Kadet over the Rascal as a trainer.