Saratoga undercard: Echo Zulu, Gunite, Bolshoi Ballet win

Echo Zulu outdueled the reigning champion female sprinter Goodnight Olive and drew off to a 2 1/2-length score in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina Handicap, a seven-furlong sprint for fillies and mares, at Saratoga.

Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, owned by L and N Racing and Winchell Thoroughbreds and piloted by Florent Geroux, the 4-year-old Gun Runner bay punched a “win and you’re in” ticket to the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita Park.

The victory was the second Grade 1 win on the card for a horse trained by Asmussen and sired by his Winchell-campaigned 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner after Gunite took the Forego in gate-to-wire fashion under Tyler Gaffalione.

Echo Zulu entered from an eye-opening victory in the Honorable Miss Handicap (G2) on July 26 at Saratoga that garnered a career-best 112 Beyer Speed Figure.

Asmussen said he felt cautiously optimistic his filly could turn the tables on Goodnight Olive after finishing second to that rival in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint to close out her sophomore season in November at Keeneland.

“Someone asked me, ‘How do you see it?’ and I said+, ‘Well I assure you that we have respect for each other.’ That’s how it ought to be. That’s what makes these races so great,” Asmussen said. “The development that she has shown is so much like her father Gun Runner. The longer you had him, the faster he was and that’s how she’s been. As great as she ran in the Honorable Miss and coming out of her first triple-digit Beyer, your confidence was it was a prep. She’s 4-for-4 here at Saratoga and has another Grade 1 win on her resume. Obviously, she’s as fast as a horse can go.

“Poor Gunite has had to work with her the majority of his life and we know who he is,” added Asmussen. “So if she’s not scared of Gunite, I don’t know who else would be out there to worry about.”

Goodnight Olive, who won this event last year en route to year-end honors, broke alertly from post 6 under Irad Ortiz Jr. and raced to the outside of Echo Zulu, who marked the opening quarter-mile in 22.45 seconds over the muddy and sealed track with multiple Grade 1-winner Matareya saving ground in third and Dr B in fourth.

Echo Zulu held a narrow advantage through a half-mile in 45.23 seconds with last year’s Ballerina runner-up Caramel Swirl making an outside move and Matareya advancing on the rail. But a determined Echo Zulu responded well when asked by Geroux at the head of the lane and put away Goodnight Olive inside the final furlong, stopping the clock in a final time of 1:20.95

Goodnight Olive completed the exacta by 6 1/4-lengths over Matareya with Caramel Swirl, Dr B, Sterling Silver and Maryquitecontrary rounding out the order of finish. Wicked Halo was scratched.

Geroux said he felt confident throughout.

“She was picking it up nicely when I asked her to. Felt like I was in control pretty much all the way through the race, and when I asked her turning for home, she gave me this other gear,” Geroux said. “She's amazing. I'm just very grateful for the opportunity the owners and Steve Asmussen have given me to ride her. She's a champion and I'm just the lucky pilot.”

Ortiz, the Spa’s leading rider, tipped his cap to the winner.

“We had a beautiful trip. No excuses. It was a perfect trip, we were just second best,” he said.

Echo Zulu graduated on debut at Saratoga in July 2021 and captured the Spa’s Spinaway (G1) in her next start. She completed a perfect juvenile season with Grade 1 scores in the Frizette at Belmont Park and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar to earn honors as Champion 2-Year-Old Filly.

Last year, she captured the Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) before her only career off-the-board effort when fourth in the nine-furlong Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs. Echo Zulu exited that effort to win the Dogwood (G3) at Churchill but was a distant second to Goodnight Olive in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

Echo Zulu is perfect in three starts this year, taking the Winning Colors (G3) in May at Churchill ahead of her 7 1/4-length romp in the Honorable Miss.

“Obviously her prep race for this race she ran phenomenal,” said winning co-owner Ron Winchell. “We were expecting a little bit of the same. They pressured her early and she found another gear, which is what we were hoping would happen, and pulled away. So it was pretty nice, it doesn't always work out how you plan it, and that's how it came out today.”

Bred in Kentucky by Betz, J. Betz, Burns, CHNNHK, Magers, CoCo Equine and Ramsby, Echo Zulu was a $300,000 purchase at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. She banked $275,000 in victory while improving her record to 11: 9-1-0 and returned $3.20 for a $2 win bet.

Gunite beats Elite Power in Forego

Gunite, nailed at the wire by the reigning champion male sprinter Elite Power last month, reversed the outcome Saturday at Saratoga Race Course by holding off his fellow millionaire the length of the stretch to win the Grade 1, $500,000 Forego Stakes by 1 3/4 lengths.

In earning his second career Grade 1 victory following last summer’s Hopeful, also at Saratoga, Gunite handed Elite Power his first loss in nine races dating to a May 2022 maiden special weight at Churchill Downs.

The victory in the seven-furlong race for older horses marked the first Forego victory for jockey Tyler Gaffalione and the third for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, who previously won with Yaupon in 2021 and Champion Mitole in 2019.

“Gunite is just a very special horse to race at the level he has for as long as he has and do it consistently,” Asmussen said of the Winchell Thoroughbreds’ Kentucky homebred. “It was a very tough defeat for him in the Vanderbilt and for him to not blink an eye, come back and lay it down again today just proves what a special horse he actually is.”

Favored at 3-5 in the Forego, Elite Power had put together a string of eight consecutive victories including the Vosburgh (G2) at Belmont Park and the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland to cap his championship season. He began this year with a triumph in the Riyadh Dirt Sprint (G3) in Saudi Arabia followed by the True North (G2) on June 10 at Belmont, his Vanderbilt prep.

Mott was attempting to win his second straight Forego, having captured the 2022 edition with Cody’s Wish.

“Maybe I’ve seen him (Elite Power) run a little better before, but I can't give any big excuse,” Mott said. “We gave the winner six pounds. I don't know if that's enough to use as an excuse.”

Mott said it was unlikely that Elite Power would have another race before the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 4, but Asmussen hinted he would give Gunite a prep before they meet again at Santa Anita.

“He likes racing,” Asmussen said. “He’s never been a flashy trainer. I believe he’ll need another race.”

Bolshoi Ballet captures Sword Dancer in U.S. return

Bolshoi Ballet, who won his North American debut in the Belmont Derby (G1) more than two years ago, put away favored fellow Ireland-bred Stone Age leaving the far turn and powered through the stretch to a decisive 4 1/2-length triumph in Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Sword Dancer at Saratoga.

Campaigned by Westerberg, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith and ridden by Hall of Famer John Velazquez for trainer Aidan O’Brien, Bolshoi Ballet completed the 49th running of the 1 1/2-mile race for 4-year-olds and up on the inner turf course distance in 2:29.29 over a course rated good. Velazquez previously won the Sword Dancer with Cetewayo in 1998 and Point of Entry in 2012.

“Aidan was happy with him,” said O’Brien’s traveling assistant, T.J. Comerford. “He was training well at home. He’s been taking on horses at a high level at home, so it just worked out that he was starting to come around all year.”

Multimillionaire Channel Maker, racing in the Sword Dancer for a sixth consecutive year, tugged jockey Manny Franco to the lead from the gate and they rounded the far turn for the first time in front after going a quarter-mile in 23.65 pressed by Stone Age to his outside while Velazquez was unhurried aboard Bolshoi Ballet in third along the rail, followed by Pioneering Spirit and Soldier Rising.

The running order remained unchanged through a half-mile in 49.58 seconds and six furlongs in 1:15.93, when Velazquez tipped Bolshoi Ballet off the rail into the three-path to launch his bid when the field hit the far turn for the second time. Stone Age had wrested the lead from a tiring Channel Maker approaching the stretch and straightened for home in front, looking to give trainer Chad Brown his fourth Sword Dancer triumph.

Instead, it was Velazquez who set Bolshoi Ballet down for a drive and the 5-year-old son of Galileo responded in kind, opening up with ease and sprinting clear of his rivals to win for the first time since July 2021. His last North American start came when he ran sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf that fall.

“We had a great trip. Great trip. The trainer told me to come out of the gate running, get him as close as you can, but give him a little break for the first half of the race. After there, the last half of the race, make sure I keep him busy. That's the way it worked out,” Velazquez said. “Aidan told me, 'He's going to be lazy, so you are going to have to ride him, he doesn't give you anything, so make sure you keep him busy.' (In the stretch) he was gone.”

Soldier Rising finished strongly after trailing the field in the early stages to be a clear second, 5 1/2 lengths ahead of Pioneering Spirit, who came into the Sword Dancer on a four-race win streak. It was a length back to Daunt in fourth, followed by Stone Age and Channel Maker. Verstappen was scratched.

“Everybody anticipated an easy pace early on, but I was in contact with the field every step of the way,” Soldier Rising’s jockey Jose Ortiz said. “We are very pleased, very happy with the way he ran today. He put (in) a great effort and the winner was just much the best.”

In addition to the winner’s purse of $412,500, which pushed him well over the $1 million mark in lifetime earnings, Bolshoi Ballet earned an all-fees-paid berth to the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita. Previous horses to capture the Sword Dancer and Turf in the same year are Theatrical in 1987, Fraise (1992), Better Talk Now (2004) and Main Sequence (2014).

Bolshoi Ballet won back-to-back Group 3 stakes in Ireland as a 3-year-old in the spring of 2021 prior to coming to the U.S., where he raced three times following his Belmont Derby win including a fourth in the Saratoga Derby Invitational (G1). He made only one start in 2022 before launching his comeback in April, coming into the Sword Dancer off a sixth-place finish at odds of 125-1 in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1) on July 29 at Royal Ascot.

Bred in Ireland by Lynch-Bages and Rhinestone Bloodstock, Bolshoi Ballet is out of the Anabaa mare Alta Anna. He is a full brother to Southern France, who was a dual group-winning stayer in Ireland and Australia. He also comes from the same extended family as multiple group winner Bewitched.

Comerford left open the possibility of a return trip to the U.S. for the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

“I think so. It’s late in the year and there’s probably not much he can do,” he said. “He likes quick ground. He ran really well at Newbury over quick ground.”