Espresso Shot breaks loose for East View victory

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Approaching the five-sixteenths pole of Saturday’s $100,000 East View Stakes at Aqueduct, jockey Eric Cancel, aboard co-favored Espresso Shot, took a peak behind him. He knew he had the front-runners, Shelley Ann and Sassy Agnes, measured. He just wanted to know who would be his competition in the stretch.

Turned out, there wasn’t any.

Cancel turned Espresso Shot loose straightening away in the lane and the two galloped to a 3 1/4-length victory in the East View for New York-bred 2-year-old fillies. Shelley Ann, a 16-1 shot who had set the pace, held off the late-running Elegant Zip by a head for second.

Espresso Shot was coming off a 1 1/4-length loss to Sassy Agnes in the Key Cents Stakes on Nov. 23. The Key Cents was run at six furlongs. The East View was a mile, and the added distance was going to be key to Espresso Shot’s success, according to her connections.

“We knew she wanted a little more ground,” said Dan Zanatta, who along with Vince Roth manages NY Final Furlong Stables, a syndicate that owns Espresso Shot along with Maspeth Stables. “After that last race we were pointing to this race the whole entire time.”

Espresso Shot, trained by Jorge Abreu, was sixth early down the backside while Shelley Ann, under Reylu Gutierrez, set fractions of 23.93 seconds for the quarter and 48.10 for the half, pursued by Sassy Agnes, whose jockey Junior Alvarado seemed content to keep the typically speedy filly in second.

Espresso Shot moved into third entering the far turn, joined the leaders near the top of the stretch and ran away from them in the final three-sixteenths of a mile.

Espresso Shot, a daughter of Mission Impazible, covered the mile in 1:40.73 over a muddy and harrowed track and returned $6.80 as the actual second choice.

“I was very comfortable and confident about it,” Cancel said of his trip. “That’s why I checked [behind] just to make sure I had no one close. As soon as I let her go, she kicked on by her own self and I just enjoyed the ride to the wire.”

Shelley Ann did well to hold off Elegant Zip for second. She was followed, in order, by Forever Changed, Awesome Alana, Lem Me Have It, Three Birds, Sassy Agnes - favored by $55 over Espresso Shot - Take Me to Hardoon, and Little Song. Maiden Beauty scratched.

Zanatta said Espresso Shot would ship to Abreu’s barn in South Florida. He said Espresso Shot would likely get an opportunity to run in an open stakes on dirt at some point in 2019. One logical spot would be the $250,000 Busher Invitational, a one-turn mile race here March 9.