Freeport Joe, Espinosa roll to Berkeley Handicap win
Freeport Joe ($22.20) got a perfect ride from Assael Espinosa and won the Grade 3 $100,900 Berkeley in his stakes debut Saturday at Golden Gate Fields.
The second-longest shot in the field of seven was sixth early in the seven-horse field as Sash pushed to the front ahead of Extra Hope in the 1 1/16-mile race with favored Camino Del Paraiso sitting third.
One of the bigger horses on the grounds at Golden Gate, Freeport Joe was hit by a rival on the first turn but shook it off while awaiting his cue to run.
Though at the back of the pack with Big Fish, Freeport Joe was able to save ground throughout and was on the rail as the field turned for home.
Extra Hope , making his first start in 8 1/2 months, began to fade as Freeport Joe began to make his move into contention along the rail.
As the field straightened out for home, Espinoza moved Freeport Joe into the three path as Camino Del Paraiso surged past Sash.
Freeport Joe was making up ground on the favored Camino Del Paraiso, who had won four straight stakes at Golden Gate, finally drawing even with him inside the 16th pole and quickly rolling past him to score a one-length victory in 1:43.70 with Sash holding off Big Fish for third another 1 1/2 lengths back.
“He's been improving, and he's got a stride that eats up the ground,” winning trainer Gloria Haley said. “His Ragozin numbers were so good we wanted to run in a stakes.”
A gelded son of English Channel and Winds of March, Freeport Joe was coming off an allowance victory in which he was favored in his return to the main track after five turf races. He has missed a check only once in 11 starts since running last in his debut.
“This horse likes synthetics and was handling it so well, we said let's try it,” said Haley of running in the stakes.
Since Espinoza, who had just won the previous race on the card with the longest shot in the field, began riding him, Freeport Joe has three wins, a second and a third.
“They have a wonderful relationship,” Haley said. “You can see how easily he moves in the morning with Assael on him.”
The victory was worth $60,000 for owner Larry Odbert, who purchased Freeport Joe for $2,000 at the August 2018 Northern California sale. Freeport Joe, who has four wins, a second and four thirds in 12 starts, has career earnings of $141,056.