Aqueduct notes: Esler looks to continue momentum at winter meet

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Coming off a solid showing at the Aqueduct fall meet, trainer Nick Esler hopes to build on the momentum and expand his business during Aqueduct’s winter meet, which begins with Wednesday’s opening of the inner-track meet.

Esler, 31, had a record of 4-2-2 from 11 starts during Aqueduct’s fall session, his best performance since going out on his own in spring 2012. He currently has 11 horses in his care in Belmont Park’s barn 5, but he’s “looking to fill up the empty stalls,” he said.

“The proof is in the pudding – results,” Esler, a native of England and a former jockey, said. “Try to attract owners that way.”

It was with the encouragement of owner Tom Priola, whom Esler met when he worked as an assistant to David Fawkes, that Esler went out on his own in 2012. Daddy’s Kiss, a horse owned by Priola, gave Esler his first career victory at Monmouth Park that July. Overall, horses trained by Esler have won 14 of 65 starts, 10 of those wins coming at Aqueduct. He went 3 for 17 during Aqueduct’s 2012-13 inner track meet.

“I always wanted to go out by myself; you never know when the right time is,” said Esler, who worked for Godolphin as well as Wally Dollase during his time in the United States. Priola “was very instrumental in giving me the push and taking that step. The reason I started at Monmouth was to give me a chance to get off the ground. I always wanted to come to New York – the best horses, best owners, best racing.”

In England, Esler rode races as a teenager and later would work as an assistant to trainers Clive Brittain and Ed Dunlop. Esler said he would have liked to have trained in England – his family has worked in the racing business as bloodstock agents and trainers – but the opportunities weren’t there.

“I didn’t see any avenues opening up or any feasible way of starting up,” Esler said.

Esler won with three of his last six starters during the fall meet, including two wins by Terminus in a nine-day span and one by Taylor Jagger. Those two, as well as Voodoo Tales, are horses he believes can win over the inner track.

On Wednesday, Esler will send out Magma in a $79,000 second-level allowance race at 1 1/16 miles over the inner track. This will be Magma’s third start for Esler; one came on turf off a long layoff and one came sprinting on the dirt.

“I don’t think she handles the turf particularly well; she’s been training very well on the dirt,” said Esler, who gets on all his horses himself in the morning. “I didn’t want to run her a one-turn mile first time on the dirt – that’s a big ask for a horse – I wanted to give her a run sprinting and get her over the dirt. I thought she ran credibly; she ran an even race for a filly that wants to stretch out. We’ve been lining her up for this race.”