After scoring an impressive victory in the $175,000 Long Branch Stakes July 10 at Monmouth Park, Mill House’s Trappe Shot may have earned himself a spot in the Aug. 1 Izod Haskell Invitational (gr. I) (VIDEO).
Trappe Shot broke alertly and settled in behind pacesetter Southern Ridge going into the first turn. Up the backstretch Trappe Shot found himself last of four for a brief moment before shooting up the inside and never looking back, capturing the 1 1/16-mile Long Branch by 2 1/2 lengths.
“He’s obviously a very nice horse,” said winning trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. “We’ll talk it over with the owners, but going into this race we thought if he ran well we’d bring him back in three weeks for the Haskell. I don’t think this race took too much out of him. He’s certainly bred for the distance and handled everything perfectly today."
Trappe Shot went the distance over the fast main track in 1:43.48 and returned $3 and $2.10. Nacho Friend paid $3.80 to place and finished 3 1/2 lengths ahead of Southern Ridge. Latigo Shore was last of the quartet. There was no show wagering offered on the Long Branch.
“We wanted to play the race by how everyone broke,” said winning jockey Alan Garcia. “We did think we would be behind horses and make one run. I had a lot of horse the whole way, and I had to move inside the leader (Southern Ridge), but I knew the only way someone was going to beat me was to run a big race. Two turns was no problem for him today.”
The Long Branch win was the fourth in five starts for Trappe Shot, a 3-year-old colt by Tapit from the Private Account mare Shopping. He is undefeated so far this year. Trappe Shot has now earned $187,050 for his connections.