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By Ray Hickson

All the hype and expectation around bluebood filly De An Andretti has left trainer Ron Quinton a little bemused but he says she’s in Saturday’s Group 2 $200,000 Darley Furious Stakes (1200m) at Randwick for a very good reason.

Trainer Ron Quinton. (Pic: Bradley Photos).

As it stands the full sister to Libertini has a Hawkesbury maiden win back in April in the bank but has attracted plenty of attention in part due to her pedigree, her impressive debut win and some eye-catching trials.

Quinton is no stranger to unearthing a talented filly and could easily have run De An Andretti in a restricted race but believes ultimately she’s up to the challenge.

“The hype on her is just unbelievable and could be a bit overboard. But I want to see her win,’’ Quinton said.

“We like her, she’s a quality looking animal and a quality bred filly. We’re very happy with her but you’d think she was a Group 1 horse the way everybody is talking about her.

“The experience thing will be against her but at the end of the day if they’re going to be good they’ll do it for you.”

After De An Andretti’s debut win Quinton put her away to focus on the Princess Series.

He said a small setback prevented her from returning in the Silver Shadow Stakes two weeks ago and on the back of two impressive trial wins in August she firmed from as much as $26 early in the week to be an $8 chance on Wednesday.

“We put her out in plenty of time to give her a six week spell then a couple of weeks pre-training having the Princess Series in mind,’’ he said.

“We had a minor setback that just put us back a little bit and we had to cool our heels for a while. The most important thing is we wanted to make sure we had a horse.

“I know it’s a big step going from a Hawkesbury two-year-old maiden to a Group 2 fillies race but this was our plan in the beginning, to run in these races. We’ll give it a crack and see how we go.”

The filly is an imposing individual with Quinton revealing she weighs in around the 570kg mark.

Because of that he’s not sure whether barrier two will be a huge advantage but is adamant she won’t be conceding the sort of start she did at Hawkesbury where she reeled off a last 600m of 33.50 (Punter’s Intelligence), nearly three lengths faster than the next best, to win.

“She was always a lovely looking filly, lovely big hind quarter, good gaskin, a big thick chested filly,’’ Quinton said.

“She’s a big girl, she’d be bigger than Libertini ever was and she’s just turned three.

“She jumped awkwardly at her first start and cannoned into two horses so she was 10 lengths off them, she won’t be 10 lengths off them on Saturday.”

De An Andretti is an important horse for Quinton, who hopes she can live up to her potential and be a flag bearer for the stable, and for jockey Andrew Adkins who has been heavily involved with the filly from the start.

De An Andretti wins a Randwick trial on August 20

Adkins posted his first Group 1 win on Quinton’s former star mare Daysee Doom in the 2018 Coolmore Classic but has spent plenty of time on the sidelines through injury since then.

“I’ve had a bit of a lean run of late so hopefully she can step up to the mark and help the stable,’’ Quinton said.

“Andrew’s had a rough couple of years. He won on her at Hawkesbury and has helped educate her along the way so (owner) Gerry Harvey, Luke (McDonald, Harvey’s racing manager) and myself were very happy to leave him on.

“Hopefully he can get the job done and he’ll stay on her.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Randwick meeting