Remove field from composite key and collate duplicate data
If the four records dictate a unique and you want the first one by date, then why not insert into another table, truncate, then insert back once you finish the table reconfigure (or create a new table with the right columns, insert into, then rename after dropping?) I don't think this can be improved upon, unless you want to delete from where not equal to, but the insert into should be faster (needs to be tested to prove for sure)