Ecton Park Finished for 2000

Mark Stanley's Ecton Park will be on the sidelines for the rest of the year and pointed for a 2001 campaign. The Elliott Walden-trained 4-year-old will be given a freshening at Taylor Made Farm near Nicholasville, Ky., before training is resumed.

"He's run at a lot of tracks this year and needs a rest," said Walden. "He's tired."

Ecton Park (Forty Niner--Daring Danzig, by Danzig) raced eight times in 2000 and at eight different tracks. He began the year finishing third in both a Gulfstream Park allowance race and the New Orleans Handicap (gr. III). The 1999 Super Derby (gr. I) winner won one race as a 4-year-old, the $100,000 William Donald Schaefer Handicap on a muddy track at Pimlico in May. That race followed a fifth-place finish in the Dubai World Cup (UAE-I) and preceded a second-place finish in the Stephen Foster Handicap (gr. II) at Churchill Downs. Following a disappointing third-place finish in the Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Breeders' Cup Handicap (gr. III), Ecton Park finished a late-charging third in the Pacific Classic (gr. I). He completed his season finishing fifth in the Woodward Stakes (gr. I) at Belmont Park.

"The Woodward was just a dull effort," said Walden. "We worked him here (Churchill Downs) one time after that and I just wasn't happy with it."

Ecton Park has won six of 21 career races and has earnings of $1,498,485.