Malibu Moon gets milestone 125th lifetime black type winner

Eres Tu – Malibu Moon’s 125th lifetime stakes winner – Jim McCue photo

Eres Tu’s victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Thirty Eight Go Go S. at Laurel Park made her the 125^th lifetime stakes winner for her venerable sire Malibu Moon.

Among active sires, only Distorted Humor and Tapit have more stakes winners, and no active sire has accounted for more overall winners.

Eres Tu started her career in the Steve Asmussen barn, where she placed in the Rachel Alexandra S. (G2) before joining trainer Arnaud Delacour this summer. The 4-year-old won a Keeneland allowance in October before testing stakes water Saturday.

Eres Tu broke very well and pressed Awe Emma through a half-mile in :47.42. The pacesetter gave way entering the final turn and Eres Tu willingly took command. She opened up three lengths in mid-stretch and had no problem holding off Lucky Stride to win by 1 ½-lengths in 1:42.62 for the 1 1/16-miles on a fast track.

“She came to us at the beginning of the summer and she looked really good,” said Delacour. “It seems to me that’s he was a sizeable filly. She’s probably 17 hands so I guess she needed plenty of time to mature, and she did. She came in in great shape so we just had to train on and never look back. The last race was very good and I was pretty confident about this race because she looks like she moved forward a little bit, so it was a good test and she lived up to expectations.”

Eres Tu races for her breeders Edward Seltzer and Beverly Anderson. Saturday’s win upped her record to 2-2-1 in eight starts and earnings to $196,227. Eres Tu is one of three black type winners out of her dam It’s True Love and is from the family of Preakness S. (G1) winner Tank’s Prospect.