La Macchina takes flight late to win Essex H.

Malibu Moon’s La Macchina earned his first stakes win Feb. 13 at Oaklawn Park with a sweeping, last-to-first move in the stretch to win the 1 1/16-mile, $100,000 Essex H. for older horses by a half-length.

With Channing Hill aboard, the 4-year-old raced in the back of the six-horse field until about three furlongs from the wire, when the chestnut went four wide and rolled by the field in the stretch, stopping the timer in 1:45.27.

“He really fired nice coming down the lane,” said Hill. “This horse really stepped up from his last race that he won here in late January. I’ve got to give (trainer) Otabek (Umarov) a lot of the credit. He did a fantastic job getting the horse to this level. I can’t say much except he kicked hard when he needed to and got the job done.”

La Macchina is one of six stakes horses this year sired by Malibu Moon, and joins Governor Malibu, winner of the $100,000 Gander S., as his stakes winners.

The Essex payday upped La Macchina’s bankroll to $129,350, with a mark of 3-3-0 in 12 starts.