Echo Zulu keeps pre-entries down

Echo Zulu will face no more than eight other 2-year-old fillies in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies next Friday at Del Mar and is sure to be a solid favorite while trying to maintain her perfect record.

Echo Zulu was the evenmoney choice on the early Daily Racing Form line when preentries were released Wednesday for the 38th BC Juvenile Fillies, which goes at the twoturn distance of 1 1/16 miles. Other major considerations include two other fillies who have spent much of the year in Kentucky, Hidden Connection and Juju’s Map, along with Ain’t Easy, the California-based winner of the Grade 2 Chandelier.

Echo Zulu, trained by Steve Asmussen, was flown from New York to California shortly after posting her third romp in as many starts in the Grade 1 Frizette on Oct. 3 at Belmont Park. The Gun Runner filly had her second work since the Frizette, going five furlongs in 1:00.60 last Friday at Santa Anita, and after being vanned Monday to Del Mar, she is scheduled to have one more prerace breeze.

Ricardo Santana Jr. has a return call on Echo Zulu for Steve Asmussen, whose lone prior victory in this race came in 2011 with My Miss Aurelia.

The balance of the Juvenile Fillies cast also was expected to have their final works before this coming weekend, including Hidden Connection and Juju’s Map at Churchill Downs.

They’re among numerous Kentucky horses booked on a FedEx charter flight scheduled out of Indianapolis on Monday.

The Juvenile Fillies field could be reduced to eight if Cairo Memories goes instead in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf as expected after she made the 14-horse cutoff in that race, her first preference.

One surprise pre-entry was Nest, a Todd Pletcher trainee whose five-length maiden victory going 1 1/16 miles on Sept. 25 at Belmont Park is her only start.

“We know it’s a lot to ask off one race, but she’s a filly we have high long-term aspirations for,” said Aron Wellman, who heads the Eclipse Thoroughbreds partnership that co-owns the Curlin filly. “The fact Todd was willing to make the pre-entry speaks to how highly he thinks of her.”

Wellman said Irad Ortiz Jr. would have the mount on Nest if she runs in the Breeders’ Cup instead of staying home for the Tempted the same day at Belmont.

The others pre-entered for the Juvenile Fillies include Desert Dawn, Sequist, and Tarabi.

Among the Juvenile Fillies hopefuls lost in recent days were Electric Ride, whose death from anaphylactic shock was reported early this week, and Grace Adler, the Del Mar Debutante winner who was not preentered by Bob Baffert.

The BC Juvenile Fillies has been run every year since it was carded as one of the seven original Breeders’ Cup races at the 1984 Hollywood Park inaugural.