Echo Zulu Returns to the Work Tab

It was back to work for Echo Zulu  Aug. 17 at Saratoga Race Course.

The 3-year-old filly, owned by L and N Racing and Winchell Thoroughbreds, had her first recorded breeze since June 5 when she went four furlongs in :53.64 over the Oklahoma Training Track.

"It wasn't unexpected," said David Fiske, the racing manager for Winchell Thoroughbreds. "She has been up at Saratoga for several weeks galloping around and getting ready to work. The only unplanned part was the work got moved up a day due to potential weather. We just wanted her to stretch her legs and not do anything too serious."

Echo Zulu, last year's Eclipse Award winning 2-year-old filly, was scratched from the Acorn Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park. Fiske said following the June 11 race, the filly was tested "from nose to tail" and she received a clean bill of health.

"We walked her for a few weeks," Fiske said. "If she had been any other horse, we probably would have went on with her. She is pretty valuable, and we tend to treat her with kid gloves."

Fiske said that Echo Zulu, a daughter of leading second-crop sire Gun Runner  , never left Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen's barn.

There is no schedule in place for Echo Zulu's next start.

"We just wanted to give her some time off," Fiske said, "and then bring her back and, hopefully, get some more victories later in the year."

Echo Zulu hasn't run since finishing fourth May 6 in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs. In her only other start this year, she won the March 26 Twinspires.com Fair Grounds Oaks (G2).

In her championship season last year, Echo Zulu won all four of her starts, three of them grade 1 races. The season culminated in a victory in the NetJets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Del Mar.