Top pick: #5 (Echo Zulu) (3-5) - Echo Zulu had won five straight races before finishing fourth the last time out at the Kentucky Oaks as a 4-to-1 favorite. The horse was in the No. 7 position and was jammed in the middle of a crowded field, compounded by the fact it was the longest race (1 1/8) it had ever competed in. Echo Zulu is better suited for the Acorn's one-mile, a distance it won last year at the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes at Belmont. The bay filly slipped into another gear late when challenged, winning by over seven lengths.
2nd pick: #4 (Matareya) (6-5) - This three-year old filly has won three straight races at shorter distances. It's also her second Grade 1 race after a fifth-place finish in October at the Alcibiades. Matareya did come in second in its only one-mile race to Secret Oath, the horse that went on to win the Kentucky Oaks last month, only the seventh filly in history to win that race.