The fields for the 14 races that comprise the Breeders’ Cup World Championships really begin to come into focus in summer and fall and this regular feature will offer a snapshot profile of one of the previous weekend’s standout stars.

Echo Zulu dominated a strong field in winning the $500,000 Ballerina Handicap on Aug. 26 at Saratoga Race Course, earning an expenses-paid starting spot in the PNC Bank Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint via the “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series. With the win, she solidified her credentials as the probable favorite for the seven-furlong race Nov. 4 at Santa Anita Park.

There is a very good chance that the simple answer is the right answer when it comes to evaluating Echo Zulu’s chances to win the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. She has posted three dominant wins in as many starts this season and appears to be the best female sprinter on the main track on the planet.

She defeated last year’s Filly and Mare Sprint winner, Goodnight Olive, by 2 ½ lengths Saturday on the Travers Stakes undercard when leading from start to finish. Echo Zulu completed the seven-eighths of a mile in 1:20.95 to earn a new career-best 120 Equibase Speed Figure.

Based on past history, a race like that would have been fast enough to win 14 of the 16 editions of the Filly and Mare Sprint. Only Groupie Doll (121) in 2012 and Gamine (121) in 2020 earned faster speed figures when winning the year-end championship race at the same distance. In fact, the average and median winning Equibase Speed Figure for the Filly and Mare Sprint is a 109.5.

Echo Zulu perhaps has not gotten the credit she deserves: she is a star. The 4-year-old Gun Runner filly has amassed nine wins and a second in 11 career starts with four Grade 1 wins and an Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old filly in 2021. Her lone defeats were a second in last fall’s Filly and Mare Sprint to the aforementioned Goodnight Olive and a fourth, beaten by three lengths, in the 2022 Longines Kentucky Oaks. She is one of three graded stakes winners produced by Grade 2 winner Letgomyecho, by Menifee.

It’s odd to say a regally-bred champion is underrated — and to be clear I think astute fans know she is a special talent — but female sprinters sometimes fly under the hype radar and it’s time to recognize the résumé Echo Zulu is building.

One thing that jumps off the past performances page is that from an Equibase Speed Figure perspective she has only once taken a step backward from a 105 to a 101, in last year’s Filly and Mare Sprint. That came as she was making the transition from a Kentucky Oaks candidate back to one-turn races and that was her second sprint after making her two previous starts around two turns in 2022 as a 3-year-old.

In every other race on her résumé she has improved (eight times) or equaled (once) the speed figure from her previous start. Echo Zulu is all racehorse and appears to still be on the rise.

Her three starts this year with a clear focus on sprints have been flawless. She led from start to finish in all three races, taking the Grade 3 Winning Colors Stakes by 5 ¾ lengths May 29 at Churchill Downs and then the Grade 2 Honorable Miss Handicap by 7 ¼ lengths July 26 at Saratoga before besting champion Goodnight Olive in the Ballerina.

We are more than 10 weeks out from the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, so a lot can change, but Echo Zulu looks like the very likely favorite for the race with impeccable credentials.

There are a few points of caution, of course, when evaluating her chances.

• No runner in the history of the Filly and Mare Sprint has led from start to finish and eight of Echo Zulu’s nine wins have come when leading at every point of call in the official chart. The lone exception was her career debut. In her two defeats, she was second early in the Kentucky Oaks and sixth after a half-mile in last year’s Filly and Mare Sprint. She clearly runs her best when taking command early and daring the opposition to catch her, which has not been a successful tactic historically in this race.
• Echo Zulu has never raced at Santa Anita Park. Her lone start in Southern California was a win in the 2021 NetJets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar, which is a plus, but it’s become clear to me in the last decade that the main tracks at Santa Anita and Del Mar are quite different and some racehorses perform significantly better on one over the other. Perhaps Echo Zulu will love the main track at Santa Anita, but we won’t know until she races on it and thus it is another variable to consider.
• While favorites have run fairly well in the Filly and Mare Sprint winning at a 37.5% clip (6 of 16), this race has produced several shocking upsets in Musical Romance ($42.40) in 2011, Bar of Gold ($135.40) in 2017, and Shamrock Rose ($53.80) in 2018.

Ultimately, I believe Echo Zulu is the fastest and best female sprinter in training in North America by a significant margin and the most likely winner of this year’s Filly and Mare Sprint regardless of historical trends or lack of experience at the host venue.