Aqueduct: Zivo rallies to win Kings Point Stakes

Rallying from last in the field of six, Zivo continued his winning ways by nipping longshot Sinistra by a head in Saturday’s $100,000 Kings Point Stakes for New York-breds.

Zivo ($5.50) captured his third straight race at the winter meet, rallying outside to take a head-bob decision over Sinistra, who at 29-1 had taken the lead in midstretch as the longest shot in the field.

The race unfolded as expected, with Comandante setting the pace through moderate fractions. But the 3-2 favorite had nothing left for the late stages and relinquished the lead to Sinistra a furlong from the wire.

Sinistra drifted out in the final yards under Rosario Montanez and tightened things up on third finisher Beautyinthepulpit before coming up just short. There was a stewards’ inquiry into the stretch as well as a claim of foul by Manuel Franco on Beautyinthepulpit before the result was declared official.

Zivo ran 1 1/16 miles on a harrowed “good” inner track in 1:46.66 beneath Abel Castellano Jr.

“I was concerned at the top of the stretch that I wouldn’t be able to get out, but when I did, I was confident in my horse,” Castellano said. “In the last sixteenth, he gave me a great kick.”

Zivo has won four of his last five starts, and the 5-year-old upped his overall record to 6-2-4 from 12 starts for owner and breeder Thomas Coleman and trainer Chad Brown.

“He ran the same kind of race down the stretch,” said assistant trainer Cherie DeVaux. “He likes to sit back early, and he really comes through in the last eighth of a mile.”

Beautyinthepulpit finished gamely for third, a length behind the top pair, followed by Awesome Vision, Moneyinyour Pocket, and Comandante.