Havre de Grace to tackle 4 more in the New Orleans Ladies Stakes
The race is set, the racecourse is good to go to host the 2011 Horse of the Year, Havre de Grace’s seasonal debut in the $150,000 New Orleans Ladies Stakes, which the Saint Liam 5-year-old mare should win, because when she will take the field on 17 March,
2012, the mare will head a small field of 5, 4-year-old and above runners , who are far less accomplished than she is over a distance of 1 1/16 miles on dirt at Fair Grounds Race Course.
Owned by Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farms, and trained by J. Larry Jones, Havre de Grace will break from post number 2 in the New Orleans Ladies Stakes under her regular jockey Ramon Dominguez.
“It works for me," said trainer Larry Jones, on the post position of Havre de Grace. "It really didn’t matter to us. As I’ve always said, she’s one of those that I don’t have to worry about things with. She does whatever we need her to do. She doesn’t care.
You always worry about being race-ridden, but she really, truly can handle whatever’s thrown at her.”
Out of mare Easter Bunnette by Carson City, Havre de Grace has been consistently working at Fair Grounds Race Course to make her seasonal debut of the new campaign, which has been anxiously awaited by racegoers and fans alike.
She recently turned in a five furlong breeze in 59 3/5 seconds, as she has been steadily working for her return at Fair Grounds since early February.
Havre de Grace will be sent in the New Orleans Ladies Stakes with the light weight of 117 pounds. The mare last raced in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic over a distance of 1 ¼ miles at Churchill Downs last fall, where she finished fourth on the day to
winner, Drosselmeyer.
Among her five wins last year, there were three Grade 1 wins, which entitled her to an Eclipse Award of Horse of the Year for 2011, and the mare will look to repeat the feat this year as well, with a mild race to start of the proceedings in the older horse
division.
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