Horologist, Spice Is Nice ready to get serious in Allaire duPont Stakes

Horologist and Spice Is Nice both got lengthy breaks at the end of 2020 before returning with a victory in their 2021 debut. It’s time to take the next step. Both are graded stakes-class, and they return that level of competition on Friday at Pimlico in the Grade 3, $150,000 Allaire duPont Stakes

Six others are in the duPont, a 1 1/8-mile race for fillies and mares that goes as race 8 on the 14-race card.

Horologist, who beat just one horse in her 2020 finale in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, returned from a five-month layoff to capture the listed Top Flight over a tiring Aqueduct surface on April 10, outfinishing duPont rivals Mrs Danvers and Lucky Stride, who were second and third. This will be Horologist’s fourth straight race at this distance, and she is seeking her third win in her last four starts, including the Grade 2 Beldame last October.

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“I like the distance, like the two turns, like the level of competition,” said her trainer, Bill Mott, who called the Top Flight win, in which Horologist got a Beyer Speed Figure of 90, “everything we could have expected and hoped for.”

Junior Alvarado rides Horologist for the fourth straight time.

Spice Is Nice was off nearly eight months before a stylish comeback win April 9 at Keeneland in a second-level allowance in which she earned a Beyer Figure of 92, just three off her career top. It was her first start since she finished a badly beaten sixth in the Grade 1 Alabama last August at Saratoga.

A regally bred filly (by Curlin out of Grade 1 winner Dame Dorothy) whose price was in kind ($1.05 million yearling), she “seems to have come back better than ever” at age 4, said her trainer, Todd Pletcher.

“She’s a filly we’ve always liked,” he said. “After the Alabama, she lost weight and needed freshening. We gave her plenty of time off. The timing and the distance of this race suit her well.”

Spice Is Nice was second in the Grade 2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream last year in her second start.

Another Broad, third in this race last year when it was postponed until Dec. 26, makes the third start of her form cycle and benefits by not facing horses named Letruska, Monomoy Girl, or Swiss Skydiver, the first three across the line when Another Broad was fifth in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom four weeks ago.

“She should enjoy a little bit of class relief and the fact she’s doing wonderful,” said her trainer, Steve Asmussen.

Another Broad won four of the first nine starts of her career, but is in the midst of a 16-race losing streak, dating to April 2019.

Brad Cox sends out a pair, including the late-running Getridofwhatailesu, who finished fourth, 1 1/2 lengths in front of Another Broad, in the Apple Blossom.

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His other entrant is Dreamalildreamofu, who steps into a graded stakes for the first time with a steadily improving pattern. In her last two starts, she won a second-level allowance that was rained off the turf at Fair Grounds, and the listed Latonia on synthetic at Turfway. She and Mrs. Danvers appear to be the best speed in a race that doesn’t appear to have a whole lot of keen pace.

Lucky Stride usually punches above her weight class, with a record of 10 wins in 18 starts. She gets a monumental rider switch, with Irad Ortiz Jr. climbing aboard for the first time.

Landing Zone, fourth in the duPont last December, was freshened after a poor try in the Heavenly Prize at Aqueduct two months ago when racing without Lasix for the first time in her 22-race career.