2021 Saratoga Dew Handicap Contenders at Saratoga

NY Final Furlong Racing Stable, Maspeth Stables and Parkland Thoroughbreds' Espresso Shot faces four other New York-bred fillies and mares in the 17th running of the $120,000 Saratoga Dew at Saratoga Race Course on Thursday, August 12.

The nine-furlong event over the main track honors the 1992 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly who became the first horse bred in the Empire State to earn Eclipse Award honors. Owned by Charles Engel and trained by Gary Sciacca, Saratoga Dew captured the Grade 1 Gazelle and defeated elders in the Grade 1 Beldame during her award-winning season.

A stakes winner at two, three, four and five, Espresso Shot seeks to conquer two stakes in the same calendar year, while looking to garner a first stakes victory away from Aqueduct for trainer Jorge Abreu. The 5-year-old daughter of Mission Impazible capped her juvenile season with a win in the East View in December 2018 before commencing her sophomore year by besting open company in the Busher in March 2019.

Espresso Shot snapped a ten-race losing streak when capturing the NYSSS Staten Island on November 22. Following a third in the La Verdad to begin her 5-year-old season, she found the Big A winner's circle once more in the Biogio's Rose on March 7.

Espresso Shot enters the Saratoga Dew from a fourth-place finish in the Dancin Renee on June 12 at Belmont Park.

Dan Zanatta, who operates NY Final Furlong Racing Stable along with Vince Roth, said the $100,000 Union Avenue on August 19 also was under consideration, but opted for a longer distance.

"She doesn't have that turn of foot to stay with some of those sprinters," Zanatta said. "She can go out and breeze a minute and a minute 12 every morning when you ask her. Thinking about it with the team, we've been training with the focus of getting more endurance into her. I think if she can break cleanly, be forwardly placed and tick off 23 second furlongs, she's talented and classy enough to where she can do that."

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez has the call from post 4.

Trainer Kenny McPeek will saddle Grade 1-winner Simply Ravishing, who will face elders and fellow New York-breds for the first time. Owned by Harold Lerner, Magdalena Racing and Nehoc Racing, the 3-year-old daughter of Laoban won her first three career starts.

Following a maiden score over Saratoga's Mellon turf in August, she parlayed her winning form into stakes company when capturing an off-the-turf edition of the P.G. Johnson in September before capturing the Grade 1 Alcibiades in October at Keeneland.

Simply Ravishing arrives of a distant sixth in the Grade 1 Ashland on April 3 at Keeneland, where she finished a distant sixth.

Jockey Luis Saez, the pilot in five of her six starts, will retain the mount from post 2.

Mrs. Orb boasts the highest bankroll in the field with $523,510 in earnings and three stakes victories for trainer Michael Miceli, including a last out triumph against open company in the Caesars Wish on July 4 at Pimlico Race Course.

Owned by Miceli in partnership with Ruggeri Stable, Richard Coburn, and Script R Farm, the daughter of Orb has finished in the money in her last eight starts, including a graded stakes placing in the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm when running second to Royal Flag.

Mrs. Orb boasts stakes triumphs in the 2019 Bay Ridge at Aqueduct and the La Verdad on January 3 at the Big A.

Jockey Dylan Davis retains the mount from post 5.

Completing the field are Michael Dubb's three-time winner Dancing Kiki [post 1, Jose Ortiz] and John Rossi Racing Corp's Maiden Beauty [post 3, Joel Rosario], who captured the 2018 Lynbrook in her first career start.

The Saratoga Dew is carded as Race 3 on Thursday's 10-race program at Saratoga Race Course.

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