‘Espresso’ Takes Her Shot at the Oaks in Gazelle

[Wandering Eyes]

Espresso Shot (Mission Impazible) hopes to continue her hot streak and punch her ticket to the GI Kentucky Oaks with a strong showing in Saturday’s GII Gazelle S. at Aqueduct. Runner-up in the state-bred Key Cents S. Nov. 23, the bay returned to winning ways against her fellow Empire-breds in the East View S. Dec. 29 at Aqueduct and scored her first victory against open company in the one-mile Busher S. in Ozone Park Mar. 9. The biggest question for this morning-line favorite will be whether or not she can navigate two turns in the nine-panel Gazelle.

“The only question mark is the two turns,” trainer Jorge Abreu told the NYRA notes team. “She can get the distance, but she has never won going two turns. She’s coming into the race in very good shape though. We’ll take things day by day with her. I know she’ll run a big race because she trains that way.”

Positive Spirit (Pioneerof the Nile) is already a winner over this track and trip, having triumphed by 10 1/2 lengths in the GII Demoiselle S. Dec. 1. The half-sister to GI Kentucky Derby hero Always Dreaming (Bodemeister) is a bit of a question mark going into this test, however, after finishing a well-beaten eighth last time in the GII Rachel Alexandra S. Feb. 16 at Fair Grounds.

“After her last race, we regrouped and figured that this would be the next logical race because she already won a Grade II there,” trainer Rodolphe Brisset said. “She ended up running last beaten 25 lengths, but we put a line through it. Hopefully she can show on Saturday when she showed us in the Demoiselle.”

Repole Stable’s Always Shopping (Awesome Again) also owns a 1 1/8-mile victory over this strip in the Feb. 3 Busanda S. last time. She was a maiden of three starts prior to that effort, but had been improving with every outing and will be a strong contender if she takes another step forward here under jockey Manny Franco, who just won the Aqueduct winter meet riding title.

“We’ve always felt like she was going to be at her best going two turns and that a mile and an eighth would really help,” conditioner Todd Pletcher said. “That’s why we decided to run her as a maiden in that race. She was able to work out a really good ground-saving trip and it seemed like she finished up really strongly while still having a little something left in the tank. She waited a little bit once she made the lead and lost a bit of focus right at the end, but it seemed like she was doing it very easily.”

 

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