Top Flight winner Exotic West clearly one to beat in duPont Distaff
BALTIMORE, Md. – Letruska. Malathaat. Clairiere. Maracuja.
No, those Eclipse Award champions and Grade 1 winners will not be in the gate for Friday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Allaire duPont Distaff at Pimlico. But several fillies who have tangled with those divisional standouts are in the lineup of six, providing a measuring stick as all seek their first graded stakes victories.
The lone stakes winner in the field is Exotic West, who has blossomed since moving to route races on dirt. The duPont will be the first graded stakes try for Exotic West, who was claimed for $40,000 by Louis Lazzinnaro and trainer Gary Sciacca last August from an off-the-turf race at Saratoga.
“She’s a big, good-looking filly,” Sciacca said. “Louis picked her out and said ‘What do you think of her?’ I went over and looked at her and she just looked fantastic. We said ‘Let’s take a shot and take her.’ ”
After a few placings on turf, Sciacca shifted Exotic West to dirt in December at Aqueduct. She has won 3 of 4 starts at a mile or the 1 1/8-mile distance of the duPont. The only blip came when she stumbled badly and lost her rider in the Ladies Stakes in January.
:: Get ready for the Preakness with DRF past performances, picks, and betting strategies!
Most recently, she won the Top Flight Invitational on April 10 by three-quarters of a length with a Beyer Speed Figure of 89, the top last-out number in this field. Frost Point, who she faces again Friday, was third.
“She’s doing well. She loves the two turns,” Sciacca said. “In her last race, she really put it all together.”
Into Vanishing was second by three lengths to reigning Eclipse Award champion older female Letruska – who has won both her starts this season – in the Grade 3 Royal Delta Stakes at Gulfstream Park in February. Into Vanishing earned a career-best 91 Beyer.
“I thought it was a really genuine effort from our filly,” trainer Jonathan Thomas said. “While she was never threatening Letruska, I was proud of her. She just kept grinding.”
Into Vanishing proceeded to finish second in a Keeneland allowance, with both her recent starts coming at 1 1/16 miles.
“I’m happy with how she’s doing and intrigued to stretch her out,” Thomas said. “She seems to be a filly who has a semi-high cruising speed. . . . And certainly pedigree-wise, by Hard Spun out of a Lemon Drop Kid mare, she has no excuses genetically.”
In Super Quick’s two starts this year, she has hooked two of the three Eclipse finalists from her crop last year. In March at Fair Grounds, she was a well-beaten fifth behind Grade 1 winner Clairiere in an allowance. She improved in her second outing to be third in the Grade 3 Doubledogdare at Keeneland, beaten less than two lengths by champion Malathaat and older graded stakes winner Bonny South. She earned an 85 Beyer, which trails only the last-out number of Exotic West.
Super Quick, who won three races last year on the front end, will start from post 4 under Florent Geroux. Drawn ideally outside of her in post 5 is the other confirmed front-runner, Lil Kings Princess with Irad Ortiz Jr. up. The filly won a pair of allowance races at Oaklawn Park before finishing second to Grade 1 winner Maracuja in another allowance.
Exotic West, who would prefer to stalk the pace, drew the rail. She also broke from the inside in a similarly sized field of five in the Top Flight and was patiently handled by Javier Castellano before tipping out to make her run.
The locally based Click to Confirm completes the field, as the lone 3-year-old facing older runners. She has twice finished third in stakes at Laurel Park behind Luna Belle, who is the second choice in Friday’s Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan.