Ambitious Spots Lay Ahead for G3 Allaire du Pont winner Eres Tu
Ambitious Spots Lay Ahead for G3 Allaire du Pont winner Eres Tu
Mandatory Payouts on Thursday’s New Year’s Eve Fall Finale Program
Toledo Closes Gap Quickly in Race for Fall Meet Riding Title
LAUREL, MD – Her comeback season couldn’t have gone any better, and now the connections of newly minted Grade 3 winner Eres Tu are going into 2021 with high expectations.
Edward Seltzer and Beverly Anderson’s homebred Eres Tu captured the final graded-stakes on the East Coast in 2020 with her one-length triumph in the $150,000 Allaire du Pont (G3) Dec. 26 at Laurel Park, the headliner on a Christmastide Day program of eight stakes worth $850,000 in purses.
The 1 1/8-mile du Pont was the second straight stakes win, both at Laurel, and first in graded company for the 4-year-old daughter of Malibu Moon, who has won all three of her starts since returning in mid-October from 19 months between starts.
“She’s got a lot of potential. The good thing is that we took it one race at a time, winning the a-other-than and then the stake and now the Grade 3. I would say the pressure is off a little bit,” trainer Arnaud Delacour said. “Now she’s an established graded-stakes winner, which is great for her pedigree and her owner-breeder. Now we’re probably going to be able to be a little bit more ambitious, if it makes sense.”
Eres Tu raced at 2 and 3 for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, finishing second as a sophomore in the Silverbulletday, third in the Rachel Alexandra (G2) behind subsequent Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Serengeti Empress, and fourth in the Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) to Street Band, who would go on to win the Cotillion (G1) in 2019.
Delacour took over her training this summer and brought her back in an entry-level 1 1/16-mile allowance Oct. 14 at Keeneland, winning by 2 ¼ lengths. It would serve as a perfect prep for her return to stakes competition in the Thirty Eight Go Go Nov. 28 at Laurel, also going 1 1/16 miles, resulting in a 1 ½-length victory.
In the du Pont, jockey Jevian Toledo gave Eres Tu clear run on the far outside down the backstretch as they tracked pacesetter Needs Supervision, who beat Eres Tu in the Silverbulletday. Eres Tu swept to the lead leaving the far turn and was never threatened in a one-length triumph over late-running Twixt Stakes winner Wicked Awesome.
“It couldn’t have worked out better. She was in the clear and out of trouble. That was pretty much my instructions,” Delacour said. “She’s got a big, long stride so we didn’t want to get her stuck at any stage. I thought she looked great. Down the lane it looked like they were getting close to her a little bit but she kept going. That’s a little bit how she’s been. She’s a little bit one-paced but can keep going, and she loved the distance.”
Delacour said Eres Tu, whose name means ‘It’s You’ in Spanish, will head south for the winter as the connections map out a 5-year-old campaign. Though based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., Delacour maintains a winter string at Tampa Bay Downs.
“She’ll definitely come to Florida. Whether we give her a breather at the farm or she comes straight to us at Tampa, I’m not sure yet,” Delacour said. “That’s to be determined and that will depend, I’m sure, on how she comes back and what kind of a program we have for her.
“When you look at the spring there’s a couple of interesting races at Keeneland and Churchill Downs and Oaklawn. Those are definitely the kinds of races that we could make an objective,” he added. “We’ll see how she comes back and think about a game plan for 2021.”
Mandatory Payouts on Thursday’s New Year’s Eve Fall Finale Program
Live racing returns to Laurel Park Thursday for a New Year’s Eve program that marks closing day of the 2020 fall meet and features mandatory payouts in the 20-cent Rainbow 6, 50-cent Late Pick 5 and $1 Super Hi-5 wagers.
There will be carryovers of $17,538.82 in the Rainbow 6, spanning Races 4-9, and $332.99 in the Super Hi-5 for Thursday’s opener, a 5 ½-furlong claiming event for 3-year-olds and up. Post time for the first of nine races is 12:25 p.m.
The Rainbow 6 carryover jackpot is paid out when there is a single, unique tickets sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day’s pool goes back to bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 40 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool. On mandatory days, the entire pool is paid out to the bettors holding tickets with the most winners in the six-race sequence.
Thursday’s Rainbow 6 kicks off with a seven-furlong starter optional claimer for 3-year-olds and up that drew a field of nine led by 5-2 program favorite Fast Cash, a $300,000 yearling of 2018 making his 10th career start and third since being claimed by Anthony Farrior, his fourth trainer since September.
Race 7 is an open, third-level optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting seven furlongs featuring Naughty Thoughts, winner of Laurel’s Wide Country Feb. 15; Coconut Cake, who had a three-race win streak snapped last out Dec. 3; Maryland Million Distaff runner-up Quiet Imagination; 2018 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship winner Money Fromheaven and multiple stakes-placed Ankle Monitor.
Chuck and Maribeth Sandford’s 3-year-old homebred filly Indy Takes Charge, unraced since Sept. 5 after crossing the wire second in three consecutive races, is favored at 2-1 on the morning line for her return in Race 8, a seven-furlong allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up.
Toledo Closes Gap Quickly in Race for Fall Meet Riding Title
Jockey Jevian Toledo has put together three consecutive multi-win days and registered at least one victory over six straight racing days to narrow the gap in the race for Laurel Park’s fall meet riding title.
Toledo trails Sheldon Russell, 42-39, in the standings heading into Thursday’s New Year’s Eve finale. Toledo is named in five of nine races while Russell, who has not ridden since the second race Dec. 19, has calls in six races. Both jockeys are represented by agent Marty Leonard.
Since going 1-for-4 Dec. 13, Toledo has won with 13 of his last 35 mounts, a 37 percent success rate. He has won with 10 of his last 23 starters since Dec. 20 (43 percent), topped by a four-win day Dec. 20 and back-to-back triples Dec. 26 and 27 including stakes wins with Eres Tu in the $150,000 Allaire du Pont (G3) and Dontleltsweetfoolya in the $100,000 Willa On the Move.
Russell continues to lead all jockeys in purses earned with $1,372,546. Toledo ranks second at $1,297,032 with Trevor McCarthy also topping the $1 million mark at $1,229,044.
Trainer Claudio Gonzalez clinched his 12th title over the last 13 meets in Maryland with a two-win day Dec. 27, giving him a 26-24 advantage over runner-up Brittany Russell. Gonzalez has starters in five races Thursday while Russell has no horses entered.
