Saratoga: Echo Sound carries momentum into Victory Ride

Echo Sound will look to notch back-to-back Grade 3 wins when taking on the $175,000 Victory Ride Stakes, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for five 3-year-old fillies Thursday on the first day of the Fourth of July racing festival at Saratoga.

Trainer Rusty Arnold, who conditions Echo Sound for owner Gabriel Duignan, seeks his first win in the event named for his former pupil Victory Ride. She won the 2001 Test (G1) at Saratoga by 3 1/4 lengths over eventual Hall of Famer Xtra Heat.

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Arnold said it is exciting to bring a top contender to this race.

“We’ve targeted this race because of the distance, and it’s also a special race to me since I trained Victory Ride,” Arnold said. “It would be nice to win. You don’t get many chances where you get to run in a race named after something you had. It’s a great opportunity and I can’t wait to give it a try.”

The daughter of Echo Town enters from a tidy two-length score in the six-furlong Miss Preakness (G3) on May 16 at Pimlico, where she returned from a nearly six-month respite. There, returning rider Luis Saez held her in a wide-running fifth of 11 through the early stages and made a decisive move heading into the turn to take the lead at the top of the lane. She drove home strongly down the center of the course to win in a final time of 1:11.14, and was awarded a career-best 85 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort, according to Daily Racing Form.

The win marked the filly’s fourth at as many racetracks, adding to previous scores on debut in August at Ellis, in a September optional claimer at Churchill Downs and in the Myrtlewood in October at Keeneland. Her lone loss came in a runner-up effort to Impulse Buy in the Fern Creek in November going this distance at Churchill.

“She’s doing very well. She doesn’t have a bad race, and what I like about her is she has won at Ellis Park, Keeneland, Churchill and Pimlico,” Arnold said. “In five starts, she’s won at four different racetracks, so she doesn’t need to be on her favorite track.

“We thought she was nice, but you never know until they run,” Arnold added of his early impressions of the filly. “She did everything right, she’s a big strong filly, and she hasn’t done anything wrong since Day One. All her races have been good. We’re taking a step up in competition and we’ll see what we have.”

Along with adaptability when traveling, Echo Sound is also adaptable in tactics, boasting wins with both pace-pressing and stalking trips. Arnold said he will leave Thursday’s approach in the capable hands of Saez, who has been aboard for three of her starts and will guide her from post 3.

“I think I’ll leave it to Luis. She’ll lay right off horses, and I don’t think she’s ever going to be way back, but she’ll lay off of them and if there isn’t a ton of speed, she has no problem being there,” Arnold said. “It’s a very good thing for her.”

Bred in Kentucky by Springhouse Farm, Vision TBs, Bruce Pieratt and Patricia Pieratt, Echo Sound is out of the winning Fusaichi Pegasus mare Eagle Sound, a half-sister to Blue Grass (G2) winner Wild Syn. Echo Sound is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Pick of the Litter and dual graded stakes-placed Deer District.

Indy Bay breaks from post 4 under Irad Ortiz Jr. She returns to the scene of her determined head victory in the six-furlong Jersey Girl on June 8 for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who trains her for C Two Racing Stable, Paul Braverman and Timothy Pinch.

The Take Charge Indy dark bay bobbled at the start under returning rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. but recovered to track one length back of pacesetter Long Neck Paula through splits of 22.34 and 44.97 seconds over the fast main track. Long Neck Paula extended her lead to 1 1/2 lengths at the stretch call, but Indy Bay came rolling three-wide down the stretch to get up just in time and complete the course in 1:09.70. She earned a co-field-high 91 Beyer for the effort.

Indy Bay is perfect in three starts since being privately purchased and moved to Joseph, beginning with a two-length graduation sprinting seven furlongs on March 1 at Gulfstream that garnered just a 68 Beyer. She followed with a much-improved three-quarter-length optional claiming win sprinting six furlongs on April 25 at Oaklawn Park that was awarded a 90 Beyer.

Bred in Kentucky by Frankfort Park Farm, Indy Bay sold for $19,000 at the 2023 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and is out of the winning Speightstown mare Discovery Bay. She was originally trained by Thomas Vance and owned by Michael and Linda Mazoch.

Echo Sound and Indy Bay will each face a rematch with the third-place finisher from their last respective races in Miss Preakness runner Hollygrove and Jersey Girl participant Beauty Reigns.

Hollygrove, who starts from post 2 with jockey John Velazquez, set a pressured pace early in the Miss Preakness and battled on willingly in the stretch to finish 2 3/4 lengths back of Echo Sound and three-quarter-lengths behind runner-up You’ll Be Back at odds of 23-1.

Trained by Whit Beckman for Legion Racing, the Complexity chestnut is a stakes-winner on synthetic with a three-quarter-length score in Turfway Park’s 6 1/2-furlong Valdale in February. Her other win in six starts came on debut last May sprinting five furlongs over the Churchill main track two starts before a half-length second to Mrs Worldwide in Tampa Bay Downs’ six-furlong Sandpiper in December. 

Beauty Reigns, who starts from the rail under Junior Alvarado, was a closing third as the favorite in the Jersey Girl just three-quarter-lengths behind Indy Bay and Long Neck Paula. Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott for owner Tranquility Lake Farms, the Into Mischief grey was 2 3/4 lengths back in sixth through the first quarter-mile but gamely improved position at each point of call.

Beauty Reigns is 2-for-3 at Thursday’s distance, including an optional claiming win two starts back on May 2 at Churchill that also earned a 91 Beyer. She seeks her first stakes win in her third attempt, her other effort an off-the-board finish in the 1 1/8-mile Demoiselle (G2) in December at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Completing the field is horseOlogy Racing and Craig Steinhart’s Whatintheliteral, who drew post 5 with jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. She won the five-furlong Astoria over the Spa main track last year for trainer Jena Antonucci. The daughter of Lord Nelson enters off a trio of off-the-board finishes in graded events, and seeks her best result since a second in the Hallandale Beach in September at Gulfstream Park.

The Victory Ride is slated as race 3 on Thursday’s 11-race program and is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. EDT. The first post is 1:10 p.m. EDT.