Echo Zulu outduels Goodnight Olive in Ballerina Handicap

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - After defeating the 2022 male sprint champion Elite Power with Gunite in the Grade 1 Forego, what could trainer Steve Asmussen and his team do for an encore? Only come back an hour later and beat the reigning filly and mare sprint champion, Goodnight Olive, as well, doing so in eye-catching fashion, by 2 1/2 lengths, with Echo Zulu in the Grade 1 Ballerina Handicap.

The Ballerina is a designated “win and you’re in” race for the Breeders’ Cup and earned Echo Zulu an all-expenses-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 4. Echo Zulu finished second, beaten by a similar margin of 2 1/2 lengths, to Goodnight Olive in the 2022 Filly and Mare Sprint.

Despite Goodnight Olive’s imposing credentials, it was Echo Zulu who went postward as the prohibitive favorite, at odds of 3-5, in the seven-furlong Ballerina. Echo Zulu went into the race off two one-sided victories to open her 2023 campaign, including a dominant, 7 1/4-length triumph here last month in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss for which she received a 112 Beyer Speed Figure, equaling Cody’s Wish for the highest figure earned by any horse this season.

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Echo Zulu and Goodnight Olive, who each had career records of eight wins from 10 starts, broke from adjacent stalls in posts 6 and 7 respectively and wasted little time having at one another from the outset. Echo Zulu took command leaving the chute under jockey Florent Geroux with Goodnight Olive stalking the favorite just to her outside.

The two leaders remained locked in a duel around the turn, and gradually began to separate from the others upon entering the stretch before Echo Zulu eventually asserted her superiority, edging away steadily from Goodnight Olive in the final furlong. The latter was easily second-best, finishing 6 1/4 lengths in front of Matareya, who nosed out Caramel Swirl to finish third.

Echo Zulu, like Gunite a son of Gun Runner, carried 123 pounds to victory, one less than highweight Goodnight Olive. Owned in partnership by L and N Racing and Winchell Thoroughbreds, Echo Zulu (112 Beyer Speed Figure) covered the distance in 1:20.95 seconds, .58 faster than Gunite’s final clocking in the Forego. She paid $3.20.

“She’s dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s,” Asmussen said. “She’s done unbelievable coming out of her last race and coming into this. As great as she ran in the Honorable Miss, it was her first triple-digit Beyer, that was a prep. So we had a tremendous amount of confidence she would do exactly what she did (today). We had a tremendous amount of respect for each other (Goodnight Olive) coming into the race, and that’s exactly how it ought to be, and that’s what makes these races so great.”

Asmusssen paid Echo Zulu the ultimate compliment when comparing her to her sire, Gun Runner.

“She has shown she is so much like her father,” Asmussen said. “The longer we had him, the faster he was and that’s how she is. She’s 4 for 4 at Saratoga, has another Grade 1 on her resume’. She’s just faster than other horses. And that’s a special thing.”

Asmussen said he would see how things play out for Echo Zulu coming out of the Ballerina before deciding whether she would have another start before likely meeting Goodnight Olive again in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

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