THREE times this year Gunite has finished second to winning machine Elite Power but Steve Asmussen’s sprinter finally got the better of the Juddmonte monster in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes at Saratoga.
Trained by Bill Mott, Elite Power came into the seven-furlong race having won his eight previous starts, and they included the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and the Riyadh Sprint in Saudi Arabia.
He was trying to give 6lb to Gunite last Saturday and it proved a bit too much, losing out by just under two lengths on a sloppy surface.
Like his stable companion Cody’s Wish, Elite Power likes to come from off the pace and he couldn’t quite peg back the front-running Gunite, who responded admirably to jockey Tyler Gaffalione’s urgings.
Elite Power will have a break now until the Breeders’ Cup Sprint where he will surely have a great chance of retaining his title. Gunite, meanwhile, is likely to have another race in the meantime.
Female sprinters
Asmussen claimed another Grade 1 on the Saratoga card when Echo Zulu saw off last year’s Breeders’ Cup winner Goodnight Olive by two and a half lengths in the Grade 1 Ballerina Handicap over seven furlongs. Echo Zulu finished second to Goodnight Olive in the Filly & Mare Sprint at Keeneland last November but she has been in such good form this year that she was sent off at odds-on to beat her old rival last Saturday and she did so comfortably.
Gun Runner remembered
“The development that she has shown is so much like her father, Gun Runner,” Asmussen said. “The longer you had him, the faster he was and that’s how she’s been. She’s as fast as a horse can go.”
Winning rider Florent Geroux said: “She was picking it up nicely when I asked her to. Felt like I was in control pretty much all the way through the race, and when I asked her turning for home, she gave me this other gear.”
Both Echo Zulu and Gunite are from the first crop of Gun Runner, the son of Candy Ride who finished second to Arrogate in the 2017 Dubai World Cup and then won five Grade 1 races in a row before being retired.