Reigning Horse of the Year
Havre de Grace put in her last workout in advance of Saturday’s
$150,000 New Orleans Ladies this morning at Fair Grounds Race Course
& Slots, breezing five furlongs in :59 3/5 with regular exercise
rider
Jen Brasser aboard. The 5-year-old mare worked in company with an unraced 3-year-old filly,
Just Jan, who went the same distance in 1:00 under
Rosie Napravnik while breezing to the inside of Havre de Grace.
Due to short but heavy showers earlier in the
morning, trainer Larry Jones
decided to wait until after the renovation break ended at 8:30 a.m. to
work Havre de Grace, as opposed to going out at her usual 6 a.m. slot.
Following
a leisurely gallop up to the five-eighths
pole in tandem, Napravnik and Just Jan broke off about a half-length in
front of Brasser and Havre de Grace. The pair worked through splits of
:12 4/5, :24 3/5, :36 2/5 and :48 2/5, with Havre de Grace hitting the
finish line about a half-length in front.
“We
didn’t want her to work too fast,” Jones
said. “The beauty of it was she sat off just like we wanted her to, she
wasn’t too aggressive, she went right to the lead when she was supposed
to. Mentally she’s right where we want her. She’s controllable and we
know she’s fast. She’s ready to go.”
The
workmate, Jones explained, was necessary
to help Brasser gauge how fast she was going, as multiple riders have
been deceived by how easily Havre de Grace can tick off sub-12 eighths,
especially when she is race-ready.
“I’ve had jockeys work her in 57 and 2 and
think they’ve gone too slow,” Jones said.
Brasser,
the 28-year-old Dutch exercise rider
who has been aboard for all of Havre de Grace’s works this year, didn’t
ask Havre de Grace for anything and came back impressed by the move.
“She was really good,” Brasser said. “She waited
for me the whole way so I was really pleased.”
Havre de Grace will become just the third reigning
Horse of the Year to race at Fair Grounds, joining legends
Whirlaway, winner of the 1942 Louisiana Handicap, and
Rachel Alexandra, second in the inaugural New Orleans Ladies in 2010.
Entries for the New Orleans Ladies, for older
fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles, will be drawn Wednesday.