Odds-on Echo Zulu does not disappoint, wins Spinaway

Echo Zulu (3-5) put the juvenile filly division on notice with a 5 1/2-length debut win on July 15 at Saratoga. The Gun Runner filly again showed her ability at the Spa, leading from gate to wire to win by four lengths Sunday in the seven-furlong, Grade 1, $300,000 Spinaway Stakes for 2-year-old fillies.

Echo Zulu earned a divisional-high 92 Beyer Speed Figure first out for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. She threatened to exceed that mark with a dominating stakes debut as jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. notched his fourth Grade 1 victory of the 40-day Saratoga meet, which concludes Monday.

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“It was a huge jump. We prepared her like a first-time starter at Saratoga to run,” said Asmussen, who also has four Grade 1 wins this meet. “She responded and ran well, and that was a long time ago going 5 1/2 against different horses. To jump from maidens to a Grade 1 off one run in a race with everything going your way is not easy. It takes a special horse to do it, and maybe that’s what she is.

“She is all class, and training her she’ll go as easy as you want her to go and picks it up when asked. She’s not been in a hurry for a filly that’s as fast as she is.”

Santana and Asmussen teamed for a second Grade 1 win in as many days after Max Player’s victory in Saturday’s $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup that earned him a berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November at Del Mar. Three of Santana’s Grade 1 wins this meet have come on Asmussen-trained horses, with Yaupon winning the Forego on Aug. 28. Santana also was aboard Maracuja in the Coaching Club American Oaks in July.

"I had so much confidence that I only wore two goggles for seven furlongs,” Santana said. “She was working real nice, and today she improved a lot. I had plenty in the tank. I never hit her. She was running on strong.”

Echo Zulu returned $3.30 on a $2 win bet. She improved her career earnings to $220,000 and also became the first Grade 1 winner by Gun Runner, who was the 2017 horse of the year under Asmussen’s conditioning.

“I can’t measure how much I wanted to have Gun Runner’s first Grade 1 winner,” Asmussen said. “Everything he done for the barn, he’s obviously a tremendous sire, and somebody had to be first, but I’m glad it was us. “Ricardo said after he came back, ‘I thought they let us get away with going a little slow, but then I looked back and saw the times. She’s just very fast, very easy.’ ”

Asmussen said Echo Zulu could potentially be a force when stretching out, which could come in the $400,000 Frizette (G1) going a one-turn mile on Oct. 3 at Belmont Park in a win-and-you're-in qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

“That looked like it would translate to the Frizette pretty good to me, and that would hopefully be the bridge (to the Breeders’ Cup). To suggest what she can’t do right now would probably be a mistake,” said Asmussen, who won his third Spinaway after saddling Cashier’s Dream 2001 and Hot Dixie Chick in 2009.

Tarabi, a debut winner on Aug. 7 at Ellis Park for trainer Cherie DeVaux, finished 3 3/4 lengths clear of Saucy Lady T (28-1) for second under Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano in her stakes debut.

“She ran great. I’m really pleased with her effort,” DeVaux said. “Stepping up into Grade 1 company off a win at Ellis Park is a tall ask,. and she was just so professional and handled everything well. She stumbled, and Javier didn’t panic, and she just picked it back up and got herself collected and into the race.

“I’m not sure how far she wants to go, and Javier had the same impression. A mile might be too far for her; six or seven is where she’s likely going to be most effective.”

Saucy Lady T, trained by James Chapman and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., has finished third in each of her three graded-stakes appearances at the meet, including the Schuylerville (G3) on July 15 and the Adirondack (G2) on Aug. 8.

Sequist (30-1), Dream Lith (8-1), Benbang (42-1), Sue Ellen Mishkin (16-1), Girl With a Dream (9-1) and Pretty Birdie (7-2) completed the order of finish. Meet-leading rider Luis Saez eased Pretty Birdie, the last-out winner of the Schuylerville, and she walked home last.