Saratoga will welcome Echo Sound to its opening day feature, with the filly seeking consecutive graded stakes victories in the GIII Victory Ride Stakes following her triumph in the GIII Miss Preakness Stakes.
Trainer Rusty Arnold has specifically targeted this 6 1/2-furlong contest for sophomore fillies, citing both distance suitability and personal significance.
“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 bay filly, owned by Gabriel Duignan’s Echo Town, has demonstrated remarkable consistency throughout her brief career. She captured her debut at Ellis Park last summer before stringing together victories in a Churchill Downs optional claimer and Keeneland’s Myrtlewood Stakes.
In her most recent defeat, Echo Sound finished 2 1/2 lengths behind Impulse Buy (Speightstown) in Churchill’s 6 1/2-furlong Fern Creek last November. She did, however, edge out favored Shisospicy (Mitole) by a neck—a rival who went on to win three of her next four starts, including Churchill’s GIII Mamzelle.
“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 explained. “In five starts, she’s won at four different racetracks, so she doesn’t need to be on her favorite track.”
The half-sister to graded stakes winner Pick of the Litter (Kitten’s Joy) has impressed her connections from the beginning.
“We thought she was nice, but you never know until they run,” Arnold said. “She did everything right, she’s a big strong filly, and she hasn’t done anything wrong since Day 1. All her races have been good. We’re taking a step up in competition and we’ll see what we have.”
Regarding race strategy for Echo Sound’s New York debut, Arnold will defer to her rider.
“I think I’ll leave it to Luis [Saez]. 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. It’s a very good thing for her.”
