Champions Echo Zulu, Goodnight Olive Lead Ballerina

Nearly 10 months after meeting at Keeneland in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1), champions Goodnight Olive and Echo Zulu finally square off again in the $500,000 Ballerina Handicap (G1) Aug. 26 at Saratoga Race Course. The Ballerina, like the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, is at seven furlongs on dirt. Saturday's race provides an automatic, paid berth into the Breeders' Cup, hosted this year at Santa Anita Park in Southern California in early November. Though Goodnight Olive was a clear winner of their last matchup in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, defeating Echo Zulu by 2 1/2 lengths, Echo Zulu appears likely to be a slight favorite Saturday. She has matured as a 4-year-old this year, winning her two starts, though she has not yet raced in a grade 1 this year. She is perfect in three races at Saratoga, having won a maiden race and the Spinaway Stakes (G1) there during her championship season as a 2-year-old filly in 2021 and the July 26 Honorable Miss Handicap (G2) in her most recent start. She won the latter race by 7 1/4 lengths, blitzing six furlongs in 1:08.76 and earning a 111 Equibase Speed Figure under limited urging from Florent Geroux, who returns in the irons Saturday. The win was her seventh graded victory. Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen said she is "absolutely brilliant" as a sprinter. From the first crop of 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner, Echo Zulu races for owners Winchell Thoroughbreds and L and N Racing. A $300,000 purchase at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, she is 8-1-0 in 10 starts with more than $2.3 million in earnings. Her only defeats came last year in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint and when fourth in the 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs. Asmussen also entered Winchell Thoroughbreds' multiple graded stakes-winning Kentucky homebred Wicked Halo, who has two wins and two seconds in four starts this year, including a win in the Twin Bridges Stakes in her most recent start. Team Hanley and First Row Partners' Goodnight Olive, trained by Chad Brown, won the 2022 Ballerina before her triumph in the Breeders' Cup last year. She was honored with an Eclipse Award as the champion female sprinter of last year. Since then, she is 2-for-3, only losing the Derby City Distaff Stakes (G1) in early May at Churchill Downs after encountering a troubled trip and settling for third behind Matareya and Wicked Halo. Last out Goodnight Olive rallied to edge Wicked Halo by a neck in the June 17 Bed o' Roses Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park under regular jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. "It's a very strong division. Echo Zulu will be a tough horse to tackle. But our horse is fresh and doing well at the moment. I'm optimistic that she'll run well," said Brown. Like Echo Zulu, she is 8-for-10 and unbeaten at Saratoga, where she is 2-for-2. She carries high weight of 124 pounds, just ahead of Echo Zulu and Wicked Halo at 123 and Godolphin's homebred Matareya at 122. The latter, a 4-year-old daughter of Pioneerof the Nile, will seek to rebound from a lackluster third in the Chicago Stakes (G3) at Ellis Park June 24 for trainer Brad Cox. Echo Zulu and to a lesser extent Matareya, under Flavien Prat, would appear to be those most likely to go to the early lead in a race with only a limited number of speed horses. The Ballerina is the 10th race on Saturday's Travers Day card with a scheduled post time at 4:55 p.m. ET.