'Ambitious' spots ahead for Eres Tu after Allaire du Pont win
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) on Saturday 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 on Oct. 14 at Keeneland, winning by 2 1/4 lengths. It would serve as a perfect prep for her return to stakes competition in the Thirty Eight Go Go on Nov. 28 at Laurel, also going 1 1/16 miles, resulting in a 1 1/2-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.