Echo Zulu will winter at Fair Grounds

DEL MAR, Calif. – The top runners from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Friday at Del Mar, most notably the unbeaten Echo Zulu, will get vacations before commencing their 3-year-old campaigns, with the Kentucky Oaks on May 6 at Churchill Downs the target.

The route many take to get there might depend on Echo Zulu’s plans. Can you blame them? Who would want to take her on quite yet?

Echo Zulu completed a perfect 4-for-4 campaign with a dominating victory in the Juvenile Fillies, in which she got a Beyer Speed Figure of 94.

Her trainer, Steve Asmussen, said she was scheduled to fly back to Kentucky on Wednesday. After that, assistant Scott Blasi said Sunday, she will head to Fair Grounds, where Asmussen keeps his primary string during the winter.

Echo Zulu commenced her training at the Laredo, Texas, facility run by Asmussen’s parents, Keith and Marilyn. As usual with horses prepped there, she was professional from the start of her racing career, and, as with just about all Asmussen runners, flies away from the gate.

There was no stopping her Friday.

Juju’s Map, who finished second, came out of the race well and will travel to Kentucky this week before heading south for the winter, trainer Brad Cox said.

“We’ll work back from the Kentucky Oaks,” Cox said Sunday morning. “She’ll be on the Oaklawn or Fair Grounds schedule, but probably train at Fair Grounds.”

Cox said where Juju’s Map has her prep races might depend on where Echo Zulu shows up.

Tarabi, a gallant third in her first try around two turns and only her third start, also will eventually wind up at Fair Grounds for the winter, according to her trainer, Cherie DeVaux.

DeVaux said Tarabi “came out of her race in good shape.”

“We’ll freshen her for a few weeks and point towards a late-winter/spring campaign with the Oaks being the main target,” she said. “We are going to keep her at Keeneland for now, make use of the turn-out pens, then go to Fair Grounds.”

Hidden Connection, who was fourth in the Juvenile Fillies, “came back great,” said trainer Bret Calhoun, who said she made the trip back to Churchill Downs early Saturday in good order.

Calhoun said Hidden Connection would get a few weeks’ rest at Hidden Brook in Ocala, Fla., “and then return to Fair Grounds to prepare for a campaign next year.”