Value can be found at every level of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, and in the “Treasure Hunting” series, we'll be examining successful graduates of the bellwether auction who sold below the median price of their particular session.
We'll start at Book 1 and go all the way to Book 6, talking to buyers who found horses that slipped under the commercial radar in their given segment of the marketplace.
Champion Echo Zulu might be one of the best possible results of a plan coming together at a horse auction, but she initially wasn't part of the plan at all for owners Winchell Thoroughbreds and L and N Racing.
The two entities were encouraged to pair up by mutual trainer Steve Asmussen ahead of the 2020 yearling auction season, and they entered that year's Keeneland September Yearling Sale with a plan to buy colts.
That year's sale featured the first crop of yearlings from sire Gun Runner, a horse the Winchell operation campaigned to a Horse of the Year title in 2017, and Winchell racing manager David Fiske said they planned to support their new stallion heavily.
At the same time, L and N Racing – a partnership consisting of Lee Levinson, sons Andy and Michael, and family friend Don Nelson – was in the midst of campaigning Echo Town, a Speightstown colt who had recently won the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
The boutique Book 1 of that year's Keeneland September sale featured a half-sibling to Echo Town by Gun Runner, out of the Grade 2-winning Menifee mare Letgomyecho.
There was just one problem: The yearling wasn't a colt. Michael Levinson was undeterred.
“Mike was the one that came to us and said, 'Have you seen this Gun Runner half-sister to Echo Town?'” Fiske said. “At first, we kind of went, 'Well, no, because we're looking at colts,' and we tried to stay focused. He kind of kept on about it, and Steve [Asmussen] went and looked at her, and Steve liked her. He wasn't raving about her, but he liked her.”
The filly jumped through all the veterinary hoops, and at that point, Fiske said they expected Echo Zulu to hammer somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000. Going in for half on a price in that range wouldn't be “make or break” for the Winchell operation, and between supporting Gun Runner and generating some goodwill with their new partners, it was decided to deviate slightly from the plan.
Echo Zulu went to the partnership for $300,000, selling as Hip 253 during the second session of Book 1. The median price for that session was $330,000, putting the filly just below the line.
Betz Thoroughbreds consigned Echo Zulu as agent at the sale, and the filly was bred by the partnership of Betz/J. Betz/Burns/CHNNHK/Magers/CoCo Equine/Ramsby.
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“Bill Betz has a history and a reputation of raising and selling really nice racehorses,” Fiske said. “I don't think Bill had sold anything out of Letgomyecho for more than $300,000, and we thought it was Gun Runner's first crop and we want to put as many of those in good hands as we can. That could only benefit us. We thought if we could get her for $300,000, how could we get hurt too badly doing that? She's going to have some residual value (as a broodmare).”
For going off charted course, Echo Zulu has rewarded her owners handsomely, winning nine of 11 starts and earning $2,640,375 to date.
She was named champion 2-year-old filly of the 2021 racing season after a campaign that featured victories in the G1 Spinaway Stakes and Frizette Stakes, and culminated with a 5 1/4-length triumph in the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar.
Following a 3-year-old campaign that saw her finish second in the G1 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint after winning the G2 Fair Grounds Oaks and G3 Dogwood Stakes, Echo Zulu has gone on to become one of the top female sprinters in the nation at age four. She's unbeaten in three starts during the 2023 racing season, starting with the G3 Winning Colors Stakes, then the G2 Honorable Miss Handicap, and most recently the G1 Ballerina Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 26.
“Everyone's been really pleased ever since,” Fiske said. “It's one of those things where the stars just aligned and everyone was receptive with the proposition.”
Echo Zulu_Sept 2020 Hip 253 from Lauren Warren on Vimeo.
The post Treasure Hunting Presented By Keeneland: Echo Zulu Was A Product Of Goodwill And Good Luck appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
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