Zanotti ($78.50) uses steady rally for Queens County upset

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Juan Carlos Guerrero was in the track kitchen at Parx Racing on Saturday afternoon when he looked up at a television set and saw that his horse, Zanotti, was 38-1 going into the starting gate for the $125,000 Queens County Stakes at Aqueduct.

Guerrero said he thought to himself, “What am I doing in this spot?"

About two minutes later, the answer became clear. Zanotti, sent off as the rank outsider in the eight-horse field, came with a steady rally under Jorge Vargas to run down pace-setting favorite Alex the Terror and win the Queens County by a neck in a blanket finish. Alex the Terror finished a nose in front of Kurilov, who was a head in front of Doyouknowsomething. Discrett Lover, Senior Investment, Watershed, and Securitiz completed the order of finish.

Backsideofthemoon was scratched.

The win was the seventh from 18 starts for Zanotti, a 4-year-old gelding by Gio Ponti who on Nov. 27, 2016 was claimed for $30,000 by owner Marshall Gramm and trainer Randy Matthews. Gramm sent the horse to Guerrero, who saddled him to four wins and three seconds from seven starts against modest competition at Parx this year.

Guerrero gave Zanotti a break following a seven-length allowance win at Parx in July because Vargas had told him he felt the horse didn’t feel right during the running of that race. Guerrero pointed Zanotti to this race at Gramm's request.

“My boss wanted to try him in New York and he asked me if I could get him ready,” Guerrero said by phone from Parx. “We got into him pretty good and the horse came around.”

The 1 1/8 miles of the Queens County was a question mark for Guerrero. The gelding had never run that far before.

“I knew I had him fit for it, I wasn’t sure he was going to handle it,” Guerrero said.

Zanotti not only handled the distance, he handled a sloppy track, a surface on which he had not previously competed.

Zanotti was fifth down the backside and, entering the far turn, Vargas was asking - but the response wasn’t immediately forthcoming. Meanwhile, Alex the Terror, under Irad Ortiz Jr., had made a seemingly comfortable lead through realistic fractions of 24.33, 48.47, and 1:12.61 for six furlongs.

Alex the Terror was confronted by Doyouknowsomething and Kurilov and turned both aside. But he switched back to his left lead in deep stretch and probably didn’t see Zanotti coming on the far outside.

Zanotti covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:51.64 and returned $78.50 to win.

“Since I win on him I got a lot of confidence in him,” said Vargas, who was aboard for all five of Zanotti’s five wins this year. “I always told Carlos he’s a nice horse he can run all day.”