2021 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies: It's never easy, but for Echo Zulu it might be
DEL MAR, Calif. – So far, she’s made everything look as easy as her name.
Echo Zulu – the letters EZ in the military alphabet – has won all three of her starts by daylight, by a combined margin of nearly 17 lengths. With two Grade 1 wins already on her résumé, and the fastest Beyer Speed Figures in the short, six-horse field, she is unquestionably the one to beat in the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Friday at Del Mar.
But Echo Zulu will be facing a new challenge in her fourth start. After winning her debut at 5 1/2 furlongs, and then the Spinaway going seven furlongs – both at Saratoga – followed by the Frizette at Belmont at a flat mile, Echo Zulu now must not only stretch out to 1 1/16 miles, but more significantly try and negotiate two turns for the first time.
Her primary rivals – Hidden Connection and Juju’s Map – come into this race with valuable, stakes-winning experience around two turns.
What are trainer Steve Asmussen’s hopes about her prospects of negotiating two turns?
“Victory is my hope,” he said. “She looked good going seven furlongs. She looked great going a mile. How’s she going to look going a mile and sixteenth? That’s how we approached the Frizette. Does she get a mile? We’ll find out. Oh look, she gets it well.
“She’s been fabulous. Obviously, we’re extremely excited about her.”
Echo Zulu, a daughter of the red-hot first-crop sire Gun Runner, was ridden in her first three starts by Ricardo Santana Jr., but an 11th-hour change was made Monday. Shortly before entries closed, Ain’t Easy – the Chandelier winner and one of the better-regarded prospects for the race – jogged unsatisfactorily for trainer Phil D’Amato and was not entered; she subsequently was found to have a chip in her left front ankle.
Ain’t Easy was to be ridden by Joel Rosario. Asmussen opted to hire Rosario when he came open, saying on Monday that Rosario’s experience at Del Mar, where he was leading rider when based here, was worth making the switch.
Echo Zulu is the 4-5 favorite on the lines of both David Aragona, who set prices on the Friday Breeders’ Cup races for Daily Racing Form, and Jon White, who makes the official morning line at Del Mar.
Hidden Connection, by the Curlin sire Connect, spent the summer at Colonial Downs, where trainer Bret Calhoun decamped temporarily owing to Churchill Downs, where he is usually based, closing the stable area while in the initial stages of a turf course renovation. Hidden Connection sprinted in her debut, and rolled to a 7 1/2-length victory. Back at Churchill Downs, she stretched out in her second start and just as easily handled two turns, cruising home 9 1/4 lengths best in the Grade 3 Pocahontas going 1 1/16 miles. She got a Beyer Speed Figure of 87 in the Pocahontas.
“She touted herself early,” Calhoun said. “We bought her at the 2-year-old sale, and you’re always concerned how far forward they are, or if they’re over the top, because they’ve been trained. As we lengthened out her works, we became fairly optimistic. She’d go five-eighths, just galloping. She’d finish up her works and gallop out huge. And then once she got to the races she passed those tests really well.”
Video of her most recent work, at Churchill Downs, showed a filly with a gorgeous, long stride who seemed to be effortlessly breezing.
Juju’s Map, by Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Liam’s Map, has been favored in all three of her starts. She was defeated as an odds-on favorite going 5 1/2 furlongs at Ellis Park first time out, but came back to defeat maidens going a mile in her second start before capturing the Grade 1 Alcibiades going 1 1/16 miles most recently at Keeneland.
She made a strong impression on Tuesday morning at Del Mar in her initial gallop over the surface after arriving Monday night.
“I think she’s moved forward since the Alcibiades,” said her trainer, Brad Cox. “Her two works since the race at Churchill were phenomenal, and we know she’s good with the distance.”
Cox won this race in 2019.
“I feel like we have as good a chance as we did with British Idiom two years ago at Santa Anita,” he said.
Both Hidden Connection, who drew post 2, and Juju’s Map, in post 5, figure to get stalking trips behind Echo Zulu after Echo Zulu clears off from the outside post.
Tarabi was a sharp second to Echo Zulu in the Spinaway in her second start, following a debut victory against maidens at Ellis Park. She too has contending early speed, but like Echo Zulu she will be trying two turns for the first time.
The late-running Desert Dawn, by Tapit’s son Cupid, was a distant third behind her D’Amato-trained stablemate Ain’t Easy in the Chandelier. She is 1 for 3, her victory coming against maidens in her second start at Del Mar when going a flat mile.
“She relishes two turns,” D’Amato said. “She broke her maiden going long, and I thought she ran a better-than-looked race in the Chandelier, because closers were at a major disadvantage there. Hopefully, we’ll have a level playing field on the Del Mar track.”
Sequist, by Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Nyquist, was a well-beaten fourth behind Echo Zulu and Tarabi in the Spinaway before finishing a late-running third in the Alcibiades behind Juju’s Map.