Havre de Grace's team wants 'fair' weight spread in Apple Blossom

Havre de Grace's team wants 'fair' weight spread in Apple

Blossom

The 2011 Horse of the Year and Apple Blossom Handicap champion Havre de Grace

closed out her New Orleans winter vacation with a five-furlong workout Sunday

morning and will now ship to Oaklawn Monday with trainer Larry Jones expecting

her to defend her title in the Grade 1, $500,000 test of top fillies and mares

on April 13.

Fox Hill Farm's five-year-old breezed five furlongs in 1:02 2/5 at Fair

Grounds and now she and her connections await word on what racing secretary Pat

Pope assigns for weight in the 1 1/16-mile race she won comfortably by

three-quarters of a length last year.

"The work was good and about halfway up the worktab in terms of how fast it

was," said Jones, with the breeze the 13th fastest of 26 at that distance. "The

main thing was letting her stretch her legs before putting her on the van for

the ride up there."

Havre de Grace won last year's race carrying equal high weight of 119 pounds,

which she shared with runner-up Switch, in what was her second start of the

year. She defeated rival Blind Luck in her seasonal debut in Oaklawn's Grade 3

Azeri Stakes and then followed in the hoofsteps of 2010 Horse of the Year

Zenyatta by winning the Apple Blossom.

Her main goal then became the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap in July at the

hometown track of Fox Hill's owner Rick Porter. The theoretical goal of a

handicap is to create a dead-heat for the win, and Havre de Grace was assigned

two more pounds than Blind Luck by Pope, who is also the racing secretary at

Delaware Park. Pope seemingly accomplished that when Blind Luck won the race by

a nose in a thrilling stretch battle.

Havre de Grace bounced back from the loss, going on to defeat males in the

Grade 1 Woodward and females in the Grade 1 Beldame in New York before finishing

fourth in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs -- a campaign rewarded

with the Horse of the Year award this past January.

After returning to action for this year in the New Orleans Ladies at Fair

Grounds, Jones and Porter have made it clear they very much want to defend the

Apple Blossom, but they want "a fair shake" in the weights. They were very vocal

in their displeasure over the weights in the Delaware Handicap, feeling like

they had been taken for granted by their home track.

"I know she's going to be the top weight. She better be the top weight. She's

earned it," Jones said. "We just don't want to take a pounding in the weights

and we want the spread to be fair."

Jones quickly walks back from saber-rattling and acknowledges the situation

is considerably different at Oaklawn than it was last summer at Delaware,

pointing to the sporting history of Oaklawn's president Charles Cella.

"I'm sure it will work out because I know Mr. Cella understands these

things," he said. "I was in there against Zenyatta when Mr. Cella did all he

could to get her to come to the Apple Blossom. He changed the distance for her

and that was something that helped get her there. Now, I'm not saying we're

Zenyatta or that we deserve that, but Oaklawn is a place that wants to see

horses like her run and I think that's going to help us get a fair shake."

Nominations for the Apple Blossom closed March 31 and will be released

Wednesday. The racing office will announce the weights Saturday.

Others expected to be nominated are last year's Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks winner

Plum Pretty, two-time stakes winner this meet Absinthe Minded, this year's Azeri

winner Tiz Miz Sue and Grade 1 winner It's Tricky.