Jockey John Velazquez hoped Friday's Grade 3 Allaire DuPont Stakes would signal good fortune to come as he guided Spice Is Nice to a confident victory on the Black-Eyed Susan undercard. The Todd Pletcher trainee came out of the gate easily in the 1 1/8-mile contest and Velazquez later said he would have been happy to sit third or fourth, but found himself tucked in next to early leader Dreamalildreamofu so he allowed his mount to stay where she seemed happy. Spice Is Nice remained comfortable on the outside of her rival and got a nose out in front on the turn. Dreamalildreamofu did not give up easily, fighting back through the turn and throughout the stretch, while both turned away a brief bid by closing long shot Landing Zone.
The final time was 1:48.71.
Dreamalildreamofu held on for second, while Getridofwhatailesu was third. Horologist, who was the 8-5 favorite, was fourth.
See the full chart here.
Spice Is Nice went off at odds of 2-1 and paid $6.60 to win.
The race is the first graded stakes win for the 4-year-old, who is owned by Robert and Lawana Low. The chestnut came to the race off an allowance/optional claimer win at Keeneland on April 9. She was bred in Kentucky by B Flay Thoroughbreds and is the daughter of Curlin and Bernardini mare Dame Dorothy. The filly was sold as a yearling at Keeneland September for $1.05 million to the Lows and West Bloodstock, having been consigned by Stone Farm.
The fractional times were :23.54, :47.62, 1:11.15, and 1:35.93.
$150,000 Allaire du Pont (G3) Quotes, courtesy Pimlico press office
Winning trainer Todd Pletcher (Spice is Nice): “She's a filly we've always thought a lot of. I trained her mother. She's a big strong filly that took a little time to get it all together. After the Alabama last year, she just lost some weight and we needed to regroup and gave her some time off. It seems like it has paid dividends. She's come back, put on some weight. We had a perfect prep race back and felt like this was good timing and knew she would handle the mile and an eighth.
“When she came by the wire the first time I was very happy. We weren't exactly sure who all was going to show some speed. Our main focus was just getting her away in good order and getting her into a good rhythm. When she does that she's very effective.”
Winning jockey John Velazquez (Spice Is Nice): “We talked about it with Todd. There didn't seem like a lot of speed. [Trainer Shug] McGaughey's filly (#6 Mrs. Danvers) showed a little speed but not on a fast pace. So does the [Trainer Bill] Mott filly (#5 Horologist). The only horse that showed a little speed was the horse inside who had the lead going into the first turn. So we thought we might as well come out of there running and get a position. And if those two horses go, we can sit third or fourth and I ended up having the lead by the time we got to the backstretch. She was doing it comfortably, so I was pleased the way she was doing it. She's not used to being that close and then on the lead. She was waiting for the competition to come to her. So she kind of fooled with the horse inside of her, but she was waiting.”
“We always liked this filly since she was very young. She's a big filly. She's kind of come back better this year. She's stronger mentally and kind of put it all together.”
Trainer Brad Cox (Dreamalildreamofu, 2nd); Getridofwhatailesu, 3rd): “I super-pleased with the effort [of Dreamalildreamofu]. She kind of got pressed a little ways around but she stayed on well. I'm really proud of her.
“[Getridofwhatailesu] ran well, too. She rallied for third. She was last, stayed down on the inside, then came running to finish well.”
Jockey Florent Geroux (Dreamalildreamofu, 2nd): “She ran a big race. It set up with nice honest fractions. The winner was right next to us. It looked like she was trying to come back on her at the eighth pole. The winner was just the best filly down the lane.
“She won very easy in New Orleans. Usually when you win by that many lengths (9 ¼) you're hoping for big things. She won the last time on the synthetic. Stakes winner, graded stakes-placed. I'm sure the connections are happy. She ran hard down the lane, but the winner was just a little bit better today.”
Jockey Junior Alvarado (Horologist, beaten favorite; 4th): “I had a great trip, right where I wanted to be. One thing I just found out today is she doesn't want to be covered up. The couple times I have won on her she's been outside in the clear. When she was covered up like that she dropped the bridle and after that and didn't really take me through. It was a great trip but she doesn't want to be inside covered up.”
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