Report: Kentucky Oaks is not certain as Echo Zulu resumes work

Echo Zulu, the all-but-official winner of the Eclipse Award as 2021's top 2-year-old filly, returned to work Tuesday, but whether she will point to the Kentucky Oaks has yet to be determined.

David Fiske, manager of co-owner Winchell Thoroughbreds, told Alicia Hughes of TVG that Echo Zulu's next start and future path are uncertain.

"I don't think she's a horse that takes a lot of training to get ready, but we’ll see," Fiske told Hughes. "It's not like, 'oh, she’ll go to the Fair Grounds Oaks and then onto the (Kentucky) Oaks' or anything like that. We'll just see how it goes. There will be a lot of opportunities."

The Gun Runner filly, trained by Steve Asmussen, breezed three furlongs in 39.8 seconds at Fair Grounds on Tuesday. It was her first work since winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies by 5 1/4 lengths to improve her record to 4-for-4.

"The Oaks would be great to win again, but I don’t think we’re going to hammer her to try and make it," Fiske said. "I think if it happens, we'll go. But I don’t think we’re going to try and square peg, round hole – just break her to try and get to the Oaks."

Echo Zulu was nominated to the Triple Crown series, and she is best-priced at 40-1 in Las Vegas for the Kentucky Derby.

"If we nominated her, there must be some thought somewhere we might go," Fiske told Hughes. "Maybe something like the Preakness like Rachel Alexandra did. Something like that. But the Derby is such a car crash, and I’ve had a lot of colts come out of that race much worse than they went in.”