Given a clear lead, Super Quick crushes her rivals in Allaire duPont Stakes

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Super Quick lived up to her name in Friday's Grade 3, $150,000 Allaire duPont Distaff at Pimlico, bounding out of the gate for an uncontested early lead, getting away comfortably on the far turn, and continuing to pour it on in the lane for a 14 1/4-length victory.

Super Quick ($6.20), with Florent Geroux in the irons, ticked off unpressured splits of 23.53 seconds for the opening quarter, 46.39 seconds for the half, and 1:09.92 for the six furlongs. She was leading by 5 1/2 lengths approaching the quarter pole, and continued to widen her advantage from there. She stopped the clock in 1:47.78 for the 1 1/8 miles on the fast main track, and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 107.

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Top Flight Invitational winner Exotic West, the lone stakes winner in the field of five, was patiently handled and made a mild rally in the stretch to be handily best of the rest, a length ahead of Frost Point. Click to Confirm and Into Vanishing completed the order of finish.

Although Super Quick’s moniker suits her, trainer Norm Casse said that the process of developing the Super Saver filly, a homebred for the family stables of the late Marylou Whitney, hasn't been super quick. Casse initially thought the filly would be a standout sprinter because of her speed, but then realized that she actually wanted to run a route of ground.

“She taught me a lot,” Casse said. “She was a horse that I thought would win first time out, was super fast, can’t beat her sprinting. But you run her sprinting, she spins her wheels. She taught me that you put those horses on the engine in route races.”

In her first attempt at two turns, in October 2020 at Churchill Downs, Super Quick indeed turned in a fine effort, but lost by a half-length to Clairiere, who has developed into a Grade 1 winner. It took the developing Super Quick another 11 months to break her maiden after that, but she broke through in her sixth start, with a 10 1/4-length win going 1 1/16 miles at Churchill Downs. Allowance-level wins at Keeneland and Churchill followed to conclude her 3-year-old campaign.

Super Quick finished fifth in her season debut, an allowance-optional claiming race in March at Fair Grounds won by none other than Clairiere.

“She trains hard, but I can never seem to get her ready off a layoff,” Casse said. “Her two races off layoffs have been terrible, and then she rounds back into form. I think she’s a filly that just likes racing.”

Super Quick improved in her second start off the layoff to be third in the Grade 3 Doubledogdare last month at Keeneland behind Eclipse Award champion Malathaat and graded stakes winner Bonny South. That effort set her up well for the du Pont – and she was set up even better when the other committed front-runner in the field, Lil Kings Princess, was scratched on Friday morning.

“We knew early on this morning when Johnny Ortiz’s filly scratched that we were gonna have a much better shot of letting her get into her rhythm,” Casse said. “I’m not so sure that she’s a need-the-lead type horse, but she’s certainly better when she can get into her rhythm early.”