Spinaway: Echo Zulu long on talent, short on experience
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Steve Asmussen believes Echo Zulu has the talent to win Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga. He just wonders if she has the necessary experience to capture the seven-furlong stakes for 2-year-old fillies.
Echo Zulu was arguably the most impressive maiden filly winner of the meet, when she cruised to a 5 1/2-length victory here on opening day, running 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:04.69 and earning a 92 Beyer Speed Figure. She brings that eye-catching performance to the $300,000 Spinaway, where she will meet six other debut winners as well as Schuylerville first- and third-place finishers Pretty Birdie and Saucy Lady T.
Noting that in addition to her 92 Beyer, Echo Zulu, a daughter of Gun Runner, earned a solid figure of 11 on the sheets, Asmussen said, “that would look really good if she was a 3-year-old first-time starter. But to win the Spinaway in a full field at Saratoga off one run is a tall task.”
Actually, in six of the last 10 runnings of the Spinaway, a debut winner has won the race, although one has to go back to Rachel’s Valentina in 2015 to have done so as the favorite. Last year, Vequist shipped up from Parx to win the Spinaway by 9 1/2 lengths as a maiden.
Asmussen has won the Spinaway twice – Cashier’s Dream (2001) and Hot Dixie Chick (2009) – both horses having made three prior starts.
In her debut, Echo Zulu, stalked the pacesetting favorite Lady Scarlet, taking over from that one in midstretch and drawing away under a vigorous hand ride from Ricardo Santana Jr.
“I’ve been so pleasantly surprised with how Gun Runners run faster than they work,” Asmussen said. “We liked her. She was the first 2-year-old maiden we ran up here. Do you like that one? Obviously, that’s why we entered her.”
Echo Zulu will break from post 3 under Santana on Sunday.
Other debut winners of note in this field include Girl With a Dream, who won a five-furlong race for Brad Cox at Ellis Park on July 24, and Tarabi, who won a six-furlong race at Ellis Park by 5 1/2 lengths on Aug. 7 for Cherie DeVaux.
Girl With a Dream beat 10 rivals and shipped to Saratoga shortly thereafter to prepare for this. She has four workouts at Saratoga.
“She’s settled in really well here. I really like this filly,” Cox said. “I think her number” – a 73 Beyer in her debut – “stacks up with the group.”
Tarabi, a daughter of First Samurai, overcame her rail draw in her debut, which is good because she has the rail again on Saturday.
“There’s plenty of speed, she settled well in her only race, and came with a run although it was against easier company,” DeVaux said. “She’s going to have to work out a trip.”
If having a second race makes a difference then perhaps Pretty Birdie is the horse to consider in the Spinaway. A daughter of Bird Song trained by Norm Casse for the Marylou Whitney Stables, Pretty Birdie was a front-running winner of a five-furlong maiden race at Churchill Downs on June 18. She shipped into Saratoga to win the opening-day Grade 3 Schuylerville by two lengths, again in front-running fashion.
While pleased to have won, Casse acknowledged there were things to work on, including getting the filly to change to her proper lead leg in the stretch. Casse said he has breezed Pretty Birdie with better horses and on the main track and sees improvement.
“I think you’re going to see a much better Pretty Birdie in general on Sunday,” Casse said. “If I’m right, then I’m not too worried about anybody else.”
Casse also thinks Pretty Birdie will show a different dimension on Sunday when she breaks from post 5 under Luis Saez.
“I think we are the fastest horse in the race, but I don’t necessarily want to do that,” Casse said. “I’m hoping to sit off one or two horses, teach her that and hopefully she’ll be kind and willing to do so.”
Dream Lith already showed the dimension of sitting off horses when she pulled a 36-1 upset in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race here on Aug. 8 under David Cohen for Robertino Diodoro.
Sequist, trained by Dallas Stewart, rallied from 7 1/2 lengths back when winning her debut going five furlongs at Colonial by a length July 20.
Sue Ellen Mishkin crushed New York-breds by 7 1/4 lengths here on Aug. 13 in a performance worthy of giving this open stakes a chance.
Saucy Lady T, a daughter of Tonalist, was a second-out winner in the slop at Belmont in April. She has finished third in both the Schuylerville and the Adirondack at this meet.
The Adirondack goes as race 11 on a 12-race card that begins at 12:35 p.m.