Road Test Awaits Echo Zulu in Juvenile Fillies

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Road Test Awaits Echo Zulu in Juvenile Fillies
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Photo: © Ella DeGea
Echo Zulu trains Oct. 31 at Del Mar

Echo Zulu  will face some new hurdles in the $2 million NetJets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) Nov. 5 at Del Mar, but eye-catching victories in her first three starts while stretching out a bit in each effort are providing confidence for her connections.

Campaigned by L and N Racing and Winchell Thoroughbreds, Echo Zulu has yet to be challenged in her first three starts. After she won her 5 1/2-furlong maiden debut by 5 1/2 lengths July 15 at Saratoga Race Course, Echo Zulu handled a class test by winning the grade 1 Spinaway Stakes at seven furlongs Sept. 5 at the Spa before successfully stretching out to a mile in the Oct. 3 Frizette Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park. In that most recent effort, she she drew off in the stretch to score by 7 1/4 lengths.

Trained by Steve Asmussen, Echo Zulu will start outside of New York for the first time when she travels cross country to Del Mar to race as the 4-5 favorite in the Juvenile Fillies. Also, she will again stretch out a bit while for the first time trying two turns in the 1 1/16-mile Juvenile Fillies. 

Not that her connections need much more reason for optimism, but Echo Zulu is from the first crop of Gun Runner  , who wrapped up his Horse of the Year season with a 2 1/4-length victory in the 2017 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Del Mar. Asmussen also trained Gun Runner.

With the steady progression in distance of her one-turn races, Asmussen said after the Frizette that he's confident she's ready to try two turns. He said going from the maiden win to the grade 1 level in her second start gave him more concern than stretching out to two turns.

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"The Spinaway and the Frizette—that sort of foundation and doing it multiple times gives you a tremendous amount of confidence," Asmussen said. "My worry was (starting in the) Spinaway off one 5 1/2-furlong maiden race with the (lack of) seasoning. The Spinaway and Frizette have eased all those tensions; now it's just up to how fast everybody is."

Seven-time Breeders' Cup winner Asmussen, who won the 2011 Juvenile Fillies with My Miss Aurelia , shipped Echo Zulu to Southern California early. She worked five furlongs at Santa Anita Park Oct. 15 and five furlongs Oct. 22.

Echo Zulu is not the only filly entered off a dominating grade 1 victory by a trainer with a previous Juvenile Fillies winner. In her most recent start Albaugh Family Stables' Juju's Map, a daughter of Liam's Map  , opened up in Keeneland's short stretch at 1 1/16 miles to post a 4 1/4-length victory in the Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) Oct. 8. 

images/2021/10/d8b20bfa4535411297535564287d3414.jpg?preset=medium" alt="Juju's Map wins the 2021 Alcibiades Stakes" credit="Keeneland/Coady Photography"]Juju's Map wins the Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland[/image]

Juju's Map is trained by Brad Cox, a seven-time Breeders' Cup winner who saddled British Idiom  to victory in the 2019 Juvenile Fillies. Cox was pleased with an in-hand work by Juju's Map in which she completed five furlongs in a bullet :59 3/5 Oct. 29 at Churchill Downs while working with 4-year-old stakes-winning filly Matera .

"She was well in hand throughout the work, and it was exactly what we were looking for at this stage," Cox said. "This filly seemed to improve a little bit since her win in the Alcibiades, which is what these horses need to do this time of year leading into the Breeders' Cup."

Also entered off a pair of impressive victories is Hidden Connection , a daughter of first-crop sire Connect   who has won her two races by a combined 16 3/4 lengths. Trained by Bret Calhoun for owners Hidden Brook Farm and Black Type Thoroughbreds, Hidden Connection won her maiden debut on the dirt at Colonial Downs then overwhelmed nine rivals in the 1 1/16-mile Pocahontas Stakes (G3) Sept. 18 at Churchill.

Rounding out the field are Alcibiades third-place finisher Sequist , Spinaway runner-up Tarabi , and Desert Dawn , third in the Oct. 1 Chandelier Stakes (G2))—contested at the Juvenile Fillies distance at Santa Anita.