Echo Sound wins Miss Preakness Stakes off 167-day layoff

BALTIMORE – Even 24 years after she won the Grade 1 Test Stakes at Saratoga, Victory Ride will forever be the standard by which female sprinters who come into trainer Rusty Arnold’s barn will be measured.

Perhaps Echo Sound has what it takes to stack up.

A winner of three of four starts as a 2-year-old, Echo Sound came off a 167-day layoff to win Friday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Miss Preakness Stakes by two lengths at Pimlico. You’ll Be Back, a 25-1 shot, finished second by three-quarters of a length over Hollygrove, a 23-1 shot.

Following Hollygrove in the order of finish were G W’s Girl, Mila Rose, High Paf, Not Too Late, the 5-2 favorite Stunner, Vollyeballprincess, Delray, and Family. Long Neck Paula and Vodka With a Twist scratched.

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Echo Sound, a daughter of Echo Town owned by Gabriel Duignan, won her first three starts at 2, including the Myrtlewood Stakes at Keeneland last October. She ended her 2-year-old campaign with a second-place finish in the Fern Creek Stakes at Churchill Downs, a race from which Echo Sound emerged with an injury.

Arnold had hoped to have her ready for the Eight Belles Stakes at Churchill Downs two weeks ago, but she had a minor setback that interrupted her training. Two weeks later, Echo Sound was ready to fire.

Under Luis Saez, Echo Sound broke on top in the 11-horse Miss Preakness field, but when four other horses also went for the lead, Saez did a good job of easing Echo Sound slightly off the pace.

Though Saez kept Echo Sound wide throughout, the filly rejoined the leaders – which had been pared down to Hollygrove and G W’s Girl – after a half-mile run in 46.14 seconds. In the stretch, G W’s Girl was first to give way. Hollygrove kept going while presented with a new challenger in the rail-rallying You’ll Be Back.

But Echo Sound was moving best of them all and drew clear in the final sixteenth for the convincing victory.

“She broke pretty well. I know she’s going to be a little bit sharp. We decided to take back off the pace because I know they’re going to go pretty quick,” said Saez, who had ridden Echo Sound in two of her four starts last year. “It was the best thing for her – stay out of the trouble too.”

Echo Sound covered the six furlongs in 1:11.14 and returned $9.80 as the fourth choice.

Arnold, who watched the race from Kentucky, said he felt he had Echo Sound ready off the bench and credited Saez with an intelligent ride.

“He did a great job. She outbroke the field, looked like she was going to get into a pace battle, but that’s why he’s on him,” Arnold said. “Very good move.”

Arnold said the ultimate goal for Echo Sound is the Grade 1 Test at Saratoga on Aug. 2. But she will make her next start in the Grade 3, $175,000 Victory Ride Stakes at Saratoga on July 3.

“That’s where she’s headed," Arnold said. "It would mean a lot to me to win it and the timing’s perfect."

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