Havre de Grace, bidding to join Rachel
Alexandra as the only fillies ever to win the Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward, had an
easy jog around Saratoga’s main track this morning with trainer Larry Jones in
the irons.
“She was nice and loose today,” said Jones of the 4-year-old Saint Liam
filly, who arrived at the Spa from
Delaware
Park early Wednesday evening. “She looked
like she enjoyed her little stroll around. This will start her into her
transition of being here.”
Listed at 8-5 on the morning line against seven male rivals, Havre de
Grace will be making her fifth start of the year in Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile
Woodward. Having defeated arch rival Blind Luck in the Grade 3 Azeri on March
19, she then won the Grade 1 Apple Blossom on April 15 and the Grade 3 Obeah on
June 11 before getting nosed out by Blind Luck in a thrilling edition of the
Grade 2 Delaware Handicap.
“The Obeah was supposed to be a prep for the
Delaware ‘Cap, but she
didn’t get a lot out of the Obeah,” said Jones. “Looking at the Delaware ‘Cap,
you would have thought it took a lot out of both of them, but a week after the
race Havre de Grace acted like, ‘OK, that was my prep, now let’s do
something.’
“In a long way around the bucket to get to the dipper, it seems like
she’s better [now] than going into the Delaware Handicap,” he added.
The trainer said the decision to face males in the Woodward was based on
earning year-end honors for Havre de Grace.
“We’re trying to do something to move her closer to a championship,” he
said. “If she does beat the boys, it puts us back in front of the pack [among
older fillies and mares] and into the hunt for Horse of the Year. But we have a
lot to do before the end of the year.”
Jones said Havre de Grace, who carries the colors of Rick Porter’s Fox
Hill Farms, would likely gallop over the main track Thursday and Friday in
preparation for the Woodward.
“The thing that worries me so much is that most of the horses have had a
race over the track and that’s always an advantage,” he said. “Plus she’s off
for seven weeks from her last race, and we’ve had to alter our training deal
because of Irene; we didn’t do it exactly the way we wanted to.
“If she overcomes it all, she’s really good. To overcome all that and my
training, she’s gotta be a good one.”