Owner Winchell watches Echo Zulu, Epicenter from afar

It is going to be one long Saturday for Ron Winchell. After flying from Las Vegas to Dubai early in the week, he will test his endurance by staying up until 3 a.m. on Sunday. That is what happens to an owner of three horses who are competing 8,000 miles apart in races worth more than $13 million.

“I’m not sure you can get me to fall asleep on this one,” he said. “I will definitely be watching all of them.”

The second-generation head of Winchell Thoroughbreds will be in the Middle East to see Midnight Bourbon race Saturday in the $12 million Dubai World Cup (G1). Then he will watch a video feed from New Orleans, where his champion filly Echo Zulu makes her 3-year-old debut in the $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks (G2). Finally, at 2:44 a.m. Gulf Standard Time, Winchell will be a most interested watcher of Epicenter’s run as the favorite in the $1 million Louisiana Derby (G2).

The one safe bet was that Winchell was not going to stay at home in Nevada to watch his horses run on what could turn into the biggest day he ever has had as a Thoroughbred owner.

“It’d be really hard to have the weekend that we have coming up,” Winchell told Horse Racing Nation’s Ron Flatter Racing Pod in a telephone interview from Las Vegas. “For all those horses to line up with the Louisiana Derby and having a really good prospect there, and Echo Zulu, and then to have one run into Dubai on the same day. That’s a rarity for sure.”

If Epicenter were to win the Louisiana Derby, he would join the millionaires club that already includes Midnight Bourbon and Echo Zulu and eight other Winchell Thoroughbreds alumni. The richest of them is Gun Runner, who earned $15,988,500 before siring talented progeny like Echo Zulu.

“I remember the years when the winning was tough,” Winchell, 45, said with a laugh. “I always enjoy the time we have now when you’ve got horses that are performing in competitive Grade 1 races. It definitely does not become routine.”

One Hall of Famer deserves another

In addition to Winchell, the common denominator between Epicenter, Echo Zulu and Midnight Bourbon is Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. He has been Winchell’s main man in the barn for 20 years.

Asmussen owes a lot of his North American record win total of 9,677 to the Winchell family. And Winchell knows his trophy case has been kept full because of good horses – and because of Asmussen.

“He’s just an outstanding horseman,” Winchell said. “Of all the people I’ve been around, he just impresses me constantly with his memory and his abilities. He really does have what I call a natural ability. I can hand him over a talented horse, and I don’t question what he what he does or how he does it, because I know he’s doing the right thing. He takes care of the horses, too. I appreciate that part.”

Winchell and Asmussen were almost literally born into their working relationship, because they already had a connection between their families. Especially their fathers.

“It actually dates way back to when my dad (Verne) was breaking horses with Keith Asmussen in Laredo, Texas,” Winchell said. “This dates back to the early ’90s when that relationship started.”

Steve Asmussen’s work for the Winchells began modestly, though, because another Hall of Fame trainer already had the job.

“At the time we were primarily using Ron McAnally out of California,” Winchell said. “He was training horses for my family. Steve was getting the third-string horses, the ones that Ron McAnally didn’t really want, and they didn’t look that great.”

So they were not John Henry. That did not matter to Asmussen. But it did to Winchell, especially when he saw the positive results Asmussen was getting.

“Steve was just getting a lot of performance out of those horses and making them better athletes,” Winchell said. “It started organically. It was like, this guy’s really doing good with horses, and the ones we’re sending him aren’t supposed to be that great. It just kind of grew from there.”

After Verne Winchell died in 2002, it was the new generation’s turn. Ron picked up where his dad left off, Asmussen took over from McAnally, and the rest is ongoing history.

Echo Zulu against the boys?

Living in Las Vegas, Winchell cannot help but be aware of the futures market for horse racing, especially the Kentucky Derby. For a while during the winter, bookmakers were taking action from bettors who thought Echo Zulu could be the first filly in 34 years to win America’s biggest race.

“That’s always in the back of your mind,” Winchell said. “But we always take things one step at a time. We didn’t know if she’d be ready to come back sooner or later.”

It was easy to see why horseplayers were smitten. As the third betting choice in her debut at Saratoga last summer, Echo Zulu outclassed eight other maidens by 5 1/2 lengths. Her Labor Day weekend encore was a four-length victory in the Spinaway (G1). Less than a month later at Belmont Park she won by 7 1/4 lengths in the Frizette (G1). Not even five weeks later with her new jockey Joel Rosario, she clinched her Eclipse Award with a 5 1/4-length triumph in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

A Kentucky Derby campaign would have been popular, but Winchell said it would have been pushing Echo Zulu with too much too soon.

“We did a lot with her, and she earned the time off,” he said. “Somewhere in January, we were like the Derby is probably not in her scope and her outlook. After you cross the wire in the Breeders’ Cup, yes, it’s in the back of your mind, especially when you looked at her performance and the numbers she was putting down.”

After her Derby dreams were tamped down, Echo Zulu was not even in the Kentucky Oaks picture. Now, as the 3-5 morning-line favorite in the Fair Grounds Oaks, she is a victory or perhaps a second-place finish from taking her place in the starting gate May 6 at Churchill Downs.

“Going back probably two weeks ago, we were not sure,” Winchell said. “When I was talking to Steve, we were like she’s done enough. She has nothing to prove. We don’t have to get there, but let’s just let her tell us when she’s ready.”

Echo Zulu then went out for her routine Monday workout March 14 at Fair Grounds. Her 1:00.2 breeze for the five furlongs might not look particularly special in print, but she passed her connections’ eye test.

“Her last two works I think Steve really felt like she’s telling us she’s ready, so let’s take the next step,” Winchell said. “The next step, obviously, is the Fair Grounds Oaks. That’s her comeback race. We’ll just see how that plays out.”

Without a race to her name in 2022, Echo Zulu is no longer the popular favorite of the public in her division. Now it is Secret Oath, the Arrogate filly who ran nearly a second faster than the boys when comparing her winning time in last month’s Honeybee (G2) with the same day’s running of the Rebel (G2) at Oaklawn.

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas will enter Secret Oath in next Saturday’s Arkansas Derby (G1) with a view to becoming the first filly to start in the Kentucky Derby in 12 years – and the first to win it since Winning Colors did it for Lukas in 1988.

Eventually, Secret Oath may face females again. Maybe even Winchell’s defending champion.

“I hate to get too far ahead of ourselves,” Winchell said. “I’ve seen a lot of horses come back from campaigns like hers, and you have all these high expectations. Then something happens, and they don’t win, and you’re like what happened? So I’m a little reluctant from too much experience being around horses to jump off that cliff yet.”

Building to Epicenter’s big day

If not for a head loss to Call Me Midnight on Jan. 22 in the Lecomte (G3) at Fair Grounds, Epicenter would be on a four-race winning streak. As it is, he comes into the Louisiana Derby riding the momentum of his front-running score last month in the Risen Star (G2). Now he is the 7-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s feature in New Orleans.

“We campaigned him in a way to get him to where we want to be today,” Winchell said. “He’s stepped up every time. When you look at the Lecomte, he had to go fast early. We never have to go that short a distance (1 1/16 miles) again. The distance spreads out. I think his speed and his technique will benefit from it.”

By Not This Time out of a Candy Ride mare, Epicenter enjoyed a loose lead around the 1 1/8 miles of the Risen Star. That race did not include Call Me Midnight, who comes back for Saturday’s 1 3/16-mile Louisiana Derby. Pioneer of Medina might join Epicenter in showing early speed, but Winchell said he did not expect Rosario to get lured into an ill-advised, early duel that would set up a big closing finish by Call Me Midnight.

“If someone wanted to go out there and put blazing fractions down, in this particular case you can just let them go,” he said. “We’re going to either face that in this race, or we’re going face that in the Derby, so you’ve got to deal with it. I wouldn’t anticipate any easy lead. If they give it to you, you take it.”

Back to the racebooks in Las Vegas. Before Bob Baffert transferred four would-be Derby contenders to eligible trainers Thursday, Epicenter was best-priced at 12-1 in the futures market. By the time the dust settled Thursday night, that number dropped to 8-1.

Winchell is no stranger to betting Derby futures. But not this time. Not yet.

“I normally do, and I’ve never cashed one,” he said. “Maybe that’s a good sign. We’ve had Gun Runner and Tapit, and I would get some (tickets) at like 100-1 or 125-1. Then, of course, they’re completely useless, because I never cashed those. But if I could get odds like that, I’d be all over it.”

Winchell will not see those odds for Epicenter, so he probably will not bite.

“I think 12-1 in the Kentucky Derby, it’s such a tough race that it’s hard to take anything that’s 10-1, 8-1 or 9-1,” he said. “You have to get to the starting gate. Risk-reward is not very good at those odds.”

Wins don’t always add up

Winchell’s wake-up call in the Middle East probably will come – well – probably came before this story was posted Saturday morning. There is an 11-hour time difference between his home in the USA and his hotel room in the UAE. When Midnight Bourbon races in the Dubai World Cup, it will be a little before 10 a.m. back home.

As competitive as the 4-year-old Tiznow colt has been by hitting the board in 13 of his 15 starts, he also has gone winless since the 2021 Lecomte. That was 10 races and 14 months ago.

“I always tell people when you look at his Ragozin Sheets and the numbers he’s running, if you erase his name or cover up his name and say how many races has this horse won in the last year, you would never say zero,” Winchell said. “His numbers and his performances are great. He just hasn’t put it together to find the winner’s circle. He’s a horse at every race that we’re looking for just a tiny bit more out of him.”

Seven of Midnight Bourbon’s losses since the Lecomte were in Grade 1 races. Saturday will not be any easier. Not with the likes of Life Is Good, who is 4-5 on the U.S. morning line, and Hot Rod Charlie, who is 3-1. With José Ortiz traveling overseas to get a leg up from Asmussen’s top assistant Scott Blasi, Midnight Bourbon is 10-1.

“He’s obviously coming into a race in Dubai that’s extremely tough as well,” Winchell said. “He always shows up with his ‘A’ game. I think at some point it’s going to fall his way. I just don’t know when.”

Not that Midnight Bourbon’s career journey has been worthless. Far from it. For a horse with only two wins in 15 starts, $3,197,970 in earnings make it a lot less frustrating to absorb the losses, right?

“No, I think it’s frustrating,” Winchell said, laughing. “If he was running numbers that were a little bit substandard from where he’s at right now or a little below, you would think that. I’ve had other horses that he’s clearly better and faster than, but they have a better record. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. We need to get him his day in the sun and shine the light on him and say he actually is pretty exceptional. Hopefully, that’ll come. That’s why we run races.”

Who takes the cake?

Ron Winchell’s Saturday at Meydan could go from coffee in the morning to champagne, well, the next morning. A triple toast to Midnight Bourbon, Echo Zulu and Epicenter could make it the weekend of a lifetime.

But Winchell has been in the game long enough not to get his hopes too high or to do even a figurative end-zone dance prematurely.

“I was over there when Gun Runner ran second,” he said, remembering the 2017 Dubai World Cup. “I know how it feels when you’re leading in the stretch – and then watch Arrogate run by.”

Humbled by that memory, Winchell also knows he has the horses with all the ingredients to turn dreams into trophies. Or something else.

“You look at Echo Zulu, that’s the baked cake,” he said. “Midnight Bourbon, I’ll call it an almost-baked cake. Pretty baked up. Epicenter is super exciting. He’s in the process of being something special. I just want to see him take that next step.”