Billy's Echo wins stakes race

Fallbrook’s Lita Tabish won her first stakes race as a horse owner June 17 when Billy’s Echo won the Flame Thrower stakes at Hollywood Park.

Jockey David Flores rode Billy’s Echo to a 1 1/4-length win in the 5 1/2-furlong overnight stakes on the turf.

“It was so exciting to win a stakes race. Makes everything worth it,” said Tabish.

Cleaning out the stalls and other work involved with owning a horse has been amongst Tabish’s duties to Billy’s Echo since Island of Eden was in foal. Billy’s Echo was sired by Personable Joe out of Island of Eden, who was purchased by Tabish at a Seattle yearling sale in 1992.

Tabish and her late husband, Dean, had been involved in thoroughbred racing for more than two decades, and before she moved from Washington to California she sold all of her horses except for Island of Eden and Billy’s Echo, who was a weanling at the time. Tabish moved to Fallbrook in 2000.

Summer Mayberry has trained Billy’s Echo since he was a two-year-old. Billy’s Echo broke his maiden in his first race, as a 3-year-old at Santa Anita in 2001. He would win a second race as a 3-year-old, also at Santa Anita, before injuring himself and undergoing a two-year layup in Fallbrook due to chips in the knee. He returned to racing in August 2003 with a second-place finish at Del Mar and raced seven times as a 5-year-old, compiling a win at Del Mar, two second-place finishes and two third-place results.

Billy’s Echo won two races in 2004: at Del Mar in September and at Hollywood Park in November. Billy’s Echo favors turf sprints, and Tabish rested him during the most recent Santa Anita meet. “We just kind of freshened him up,” Tabish noted.

Billy’s Echo was given about two months off from racing, skipping the Santa Anita meet. “He does okay,” Tabish said of Billy’s Echo on the Santa Anita Park track. “He just doesn’t like that 6 1/2 downhill course on the turf there.”

The Santa Anita turf sprint course also crosses the dirt track, which has not been to the liking of Billy’s Echo.

The 7-year-old returned to racing May 27 with the Bullet stakes race at Hollywood Park. He finished third, half a length behind the winner whose 55 3/5 second time set a course record for the five-furlong turf race.

“I think he had a beautiful race,” Tabish remarked. “He fought right clear to the wire.”

Golden Arrow, who Billy’s Echo would beat in the Flame Thrower stakes, finished second ahead of Billy’s Echo by a nose in the Bullet stakes. Although Tabish and Mayberry wanted Billy’s Echo to win the Bullet stakes, it served as a good prep race for his next outing. “I think he got a lot out of it,” Tabish said.

Mayberry gave Flores little advice prior to the June 17 race. “Her instructions were: ‘You know the horse better than we do; ride him,’” Tabish noted.

A scratch narrowed the field to five horses, and Billy’s Echo started on the outside post. He broke first among the horses. “He broke out nicely and got a good position,” Tabish remarked.

Flores and Billy’s Echo then settled back. “He just kind of slid in a little bit behind them,” Tabish explained.

At the quarter-mile pole Billy’s Echo was fourth but only 1 1/2 lengths behind leader Moth Ball, and at three-eighths of a mile Billy’s Echo was still fourth and two lengths behind Moth Ball’s pace.

Flores and Billy’s Echo made their move during the turn. “Out of the turn he found a hole and went through,” Tabish noted. “He went right through the middle.”

Billy’s Echo took the lead, and at the stretch 58 1/5 seconds into the race Billy’s Echo was 1 1/2 lengths in front of second-place Golden Arrow. Three horses were battling for second, and Flores and Billy’s Echo cruised to the win.

“He just opened up on him a little bit,” Tabish said of Flores easing up in the final sixteenth-mile segment.

Billy’s Echo had a winning time of 1:02 1/5. Tabish received $37,630 of the total $62,000 purse.

She also received her first stakes win in 25 years as an owner. “It’s absolutely wonderful,” she remarked.

Billy’s Echo will likely next race at a turf sprint stakes race during the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club meet.