Edward Seltzer and Beverly Anderson's homebred Eres Tu kept her perfect comeback season intact and became a graded stakes winner in the process with a one-length triumph Dec. 26 in the $150,000 Allaire du Pont Stakes (G3) at Laurel Park.
The 27th running of the 1 1/8-mile du Pont for fillies and mares 3 and up, traditionally contested over Preakness Stakes (G1) weekend in May, was moved to Saturday as part of a scheduled adjusted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The race served as the headliner on a Boxing Day program that featured eight stakes worth $850,000 in purses.
Named for the avid sportswoman and horsewoman best known as the owner of Hall of Famer Kelso, the winner of five consecutive Horse of the Year championships from 1960-64, the du Pont was the last graded-stakes event of 2020 on the East Coast.
Eres Tu ($3.40), trained by Arnaud Delacour, earned her second straight stakes victory and has won all three of her starts since she joined Delacour's string at Fair Hill Training Center near Elkton, Md., during the summer. The 4-year-old Malibu Moon filly won the Nov. 28 Thirty Eight Go Go Stakes at Laurel.
Multiple stakes winner Needs Supervision, fitted with blinkers for the first time, got out quickly Saturday and took the field of seven through a quarter-mile in :24.61 with Landing Zone and Eres Tu in pursuit. Jockey Jevian Toledo kept Eres Tu in the clear three wide, and the three horses rounded the far turn together before Eres Tu began to edge away as her main combatants dropped back.
Twixt Stakes winner Wicked Awesome launched a bid on the far outside along with Another Broad, but Eres Tu had plenty left to repel the challengers.
"I knew (Needs Supervision) was going to be a little bit fast, so I let my filly get away from there because I want to be in a good position. So, I let (Needs Supervision) go and then I came around and I was in a perfect spot the whole way," Toledo said.
"Turning for home, she just had her ears up waiting for horses," he added. "I got a little bit worried because she didn't want to switch leads and I knew they were coming, but she got the job done. She's a nice filly."
The winning time was 1:50.57 over a fast main track. Wicked Awesome held off Another Broad by a head for second. They were followed by Landing Zone, Needs Supervision, Ice Princess, and Alittlelesstalk.
Bred in Kentucky out of the Yes It's True mare It's True Love, Eres Tu improved her record to 4-1-1 from nine starts, with earnings of $286.227. She began her career with Steve Asmussen and was second in the 2019 Silverbulletday Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, then finished third to subsequent Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Serengeti Empress in the 2019 Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G2). She also finished fourth to eventual grade 1 winner Street Band in the Twinspires.com Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) last year. It was another 19 months before she raced again, winning an open entry-level allowance Oct. 14 at Keeneland.
Eres Tu is the first graded winner out of It's True Love, who has produced four winners from five starters. The mare's last surviving foal is the 3-year-old Into Mischief colt Whisky Man. She was bred to Constitution for 2021.
