Havre de Grace to run against males once again, this time in the New Orleans Handicap at Fair Grounds
The newly turned 5-year-old mare, Havre de Grace, could use the hard way as her 2012 campaign launching pad, when second time in her career she goes on to challenge the males in the Grade 2, $400,000 New Orleans Handicap at Fair Grounds race course on 1
April, 2012, over a distance of 1 1/8 miles on dirt against 4-year-old and above males.
After settling into her new home at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, Havre de Grace was initially pointed toward the $100,000 New Orleans Ladies Stakes to get things underway on 17 March, 2012, also at Fair Grounds race course, at about 1 1/16 miles on dirt
against 4-year-old and above fillies and mares.
However, her connections are aiming at a loftier comeback race, and trainer Larry Jones insists that the filly herself will tell us which way to go, because at the moment, Havre de Grace, is not short on options.
The Kentucky bred daughter of Saint Liam, out of mare Easter Bunnette by Carson City, Havre de Grace is coming off a 4th place finish to, Drosselmeyer, in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on 5 November, 2011, going over a distance
of 1 ¼ miles.
Fox Hill Farms’ Havre de Grace has done it against males in her 4-year-old career, when she participated in the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes coupled with jockey Ramon Dominguez at Saratoga on 3 September, 2011. She defeated the likes of Flat Out in second and
Rule in third to cover the distance of 1 1/18 miles in 1 minute and 49.18 seconds.
"I've been on her now," Jones said Monday. "We've gone to the track. They didn't do a lot with her down there. They had her on an aqua-tread, which is good for her legs more than her fitness. They put her under tack, but basically that was to put her mind
on going back to work. I 'loped her about five-eighths of a mile. You could tell that was enough for now. Everything's good. You can tell she hasn't been stretching her body out, but it's going to be there. When she came in this year, she looked a heck of
a lot better than when she came in last year."
She is certainly not new to the idea, but the proposition could turn out to be a frightening one because these early starts do make a significant difference on where and how to run in the remainder of the season.
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