Path of least resistance no more, This is called a Vendetta.

Go back to July of 2011, Havre De Grace was giving two pounds to Blind Luck in the Delaware Handicap. She lost that race. Now in an attempt to complete a personal vendetta against the Racing Secretary of both tracks, Pat Pope, Rick Porter has "cowardly" decided to duck Plum Pretty due to giving 6 lbs to a filly that has not made a start in 2012.

This is what is ruining horse racing, Zenyatta's people did similar by only facing the best available in 3 of 20 races, Rachel Alexandra's owner did the same in 2010 when she was struggling to find form, and now the reigning Horse of the Year Havre De Grace will take a pass on a Grade 1 Apple Blossom to run in a less impressionable Grade 2 La Troienne at Churchill and then will likely follow that up with a run in the O'beah at Del Park to get ready to run in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap.

True fans of horse racing know that greatness as defined in this game is winning Grade 1 races and winning at 10 furlongs and carrying weight, which is something that Havre De Grace has yet to do in 2012. For her career she is 0-3 at 10 furlongs and has only 3 Grade 1 wins to her credit, where as at the same time Blind Luck had 6 Grade 1 wins mid season her 4 year old season.

I glanced at the rockport harbor.com site and I noticed one poster stated that "Thanx to Pat Pope Havre De Grace will not be running in the Apple Blossom.", I also saw where Rick Porter stated at Blood Horse that he wants a letter of explanation giving reason why she got the 6 lbs from HDG, to my memory this is not how horse racing works, people don't make statements like this and racing secretaries don't send letters explaining why they weighted horses a certain way.

From what I understand Bobby Frankel was one that certainly gave indication that weights would be reason to scratch a horse out of a race, and did so to always get the biggest advantage possible in that regard.  It would seem to me though that Frankel most likely did this in a very classy way, giving indication in a subtle way that if the weights were right he would not run.  I don't believe I recall Frankel feeling the need to send sound bytes to Bloodhorse.com and DRF about the weights, and then the owner feeling the need to do the same.  This my friends is in my opinion "Classless" with a capital "C", its an embarrassment to great horses of the past who were asked like Curlin to tote 128 and Zenyatta 129 numerous times.

But make no mistake, Charles Cella was not about to be held hostage with the same Bush League tactics that Rick Porter used in asking Fair Grounds to increase the purse of their meaningless New Orleans Ladies race a month ago. Mr. Cella had no issue calling out Jess Jackson when he ducked Zenyatta back in 2010, whatever the reason, and he will likely tell everyone that the same holds true for the weights that Pat Pope released for the Apple Blossom.  Pat Pope has a job to do and that's the bring the horses down the stretch and get them as close together at the finish line as he can, in a Handicap Race.  He did that back in 2011 with BL and HDG at Delaware, and likely did Bob Baffert an injustice by only giving the filly who has yet to make a start in 2012 6 lbs.  I am sure that Mr. Pope who gained a great deal of respect by not bending and changing the way things are done to appease one man.

In my estimation the weights for the Apple Blossom should have looked like this:
HDG 126
Awesome Maria 124
Plum Pretty 118
Its Tricky 119

The fact that Porter stated he advised Baffert at a sale that he would not give PP 10 lbs was well, a hint that he didnt want to give her 10 lbs, never mention of 6 lbs, so what was Pat Pope to do, was he to call Charles Cella and ask his thoughts on making them co-high-weights. This a filly with all of 1 Grade 1 win, and coming off a 5 month layoff.  The naive nature of this situation is something that can and most likely will turn a number of people against the Fox Hill Farm connections.  Larry Jones and Rick Porter both have been uncharacteristically vocal about weights since the loss in the Del Cap.  At the time if the 2 lbs were unfair it would have been a good business decision to scratch out of the Grade 2, because a number of people agreed the weights were slightly unfair due to their records.  There is no need to attempt 9 months later to complete your vendetta against Pat Pope and another track, and lose your fan-base and your charge the chance of adding a black type Grade 1 victory to her resume.

Going forward, let me say Kudos to Oaklawn Park and Charles Cella and Pat Pope, they stayed consistent to the meaning of championship racing, and stayed loyal to the sanctity of the game, no one horse, and no one egotistical owner or trainer is bigger than the game and or bigger than the track and a very significant race like the Apple Blossom.  Oaklawn Park was not going to be taken hostage by the connections of Fox Hill Farm, and so they can now take their ball and their filly and go play else where.  What will need to be recalled though, is that Pat Pope is the Racing Secretary still at Delaware Park, its my hope that for this 10 furlong affair, that Havre De Grace is weighted 8-10 lbs more than her foes, and then allow Rick Porter to make decisions.  Run your filly or Run and Hide, there are plenty more New Orleans Ladies and O'beah stakes out there for you to run HDG in..

It is my hope that Royal Delta is fit and ready to run against HDG in the middle distance races the rest of the summer, and I look forward to Awesome Maria showing up at the same tracks that HDG does also, to give Porter an indication as to what it will be like to carry weight against the likes of other multiple Grade 1 winners, not the Absentminded's and Tiz Miss Sue's of the world, and see what its like to have to earn these Grade 1 wins, or there is the Zenyatta route, ship her out west and take down the weakest races he can find out there.

Either way, let me end by saying, either race your horse or allow the filly to retire.  HOY is all but out of the window for Havre De Grace this year, too much negative media and the wrong type of publicity.  It would seem that thoughts and perception of the connections of this filly have changed for the worst at this time, due to the way that she is being campaigned and the constant media blitz by her connections. And none of this has been or is positive.

This is a travesty and I hope that we will not have to hear about weights all year long. I personally feel embarrassed to have been a fan of FHF, with this amazing about face in the way in which they handle themselves.

GO Royal Delta

Ode To Grace

What is Havre De Grace to this writer, this fan? I believe at this point this filly is pretty much the center of my racing world, and with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic she will be a landslide winner of Horse of the Year and the most talked about horse in training and possibly reach status that only the Black Caviers, Golidkovas, Rachel Alexandras, and Zenyattas were able to achieve.  Let’s go back just a bit to get an understanding of the importance that Havre De Grace, we’ll call her Gracie, has had on the game of horse racing as a whole in 2011, on the lives of her connections and fans also.

2010 was a very good year for the filly, stepping into a rivalry with Blind Luck the talented little filly from California started a following of this rivalry that we’ve never seen before, why you might ask.  Mostly because we’ve not seen a rivalry of this nature actually takes place on the track here in the United States.  Tackling Blind Luck 4 times in 2010, Gracie lost to Blind Luck twice and beat her once, and both lost the Ladies Classic to Unrivaled Belle at Churchill Downs.  Being totally honest about things, although I followed her races in 2010, it wasn’t until the news that she was being turned over to Larry Jones and headed to my home track Oaklawn that I really took notice of the filly.  After being given ample time to rest and recharge her batteries after her sophomore season, Havre De Grace started her training at Oaklawn in the most bizarre of fashions. You could say very lazily.  Her 4 furlong work over the Oaklawn course was slow, quite slow, how slow you might ask, slow enough that Jones worked her again 4 days later.  This is the type of training that makes Larry Jones stand out as a true horseman; he doesn’t plug in numbers into a database or spreadsheet to get an indication as to when a horse should work.  He looked at how Gracie got nothing at all out of the slow breeze and decided they would not wait another 6  days.  This type of thinking is impressive and not seen nowadays, this trainer was going to make sure that his horse was fit going into her prep, even if that meant asking a bit more than what was normal.  The rest as they say is history.  6 starts later, 5 wins-3 in Grade 1 races and we are looking at the completion of one of the great campaigns by a filly or mare.

The statement that Gracie had a great deal to do with reviving a year of racing that to many was going to fail miserably when compared to the past few years is an understatement.   The outlook was bleak as the defending Horse of the Year and 2009 Horse of the years both fillies or mares were retired in 2010. That left a weak handicap division and still developing 3 year olds with much potential but with very little ability to bring attention to the sport other than the Triple Crown.  With the departure of Uncle Mo from the Triple Crown trail that left two horses that would battle it out for supremacy.  And in the end the best horse, the horse that was giving time to rest in the correct manner, and the horse that was campaigned as a champion in Gracie is still thriving.

For me personally, Gracie has meant everything and the fact that I have been privileged to enter the winner’s Circle for both of her victories at Oaklawn meant the world to me.  It was amazing to be close to her like that, to be in the presence of greatness.  Now don’t get me wrong it would take quite the filly, no quite the horse to tear me away from the love of the Greatest filly I’ve every seen in person in Rachel Alexandra. But Havre De Grace is certainly knocking on the door of that type of greatness.  

As I get ready to embark on my trip to the Breeders Cup in Louisville in a few hours, I think back to the many wonderful memories of 2011 and what a spectacular year this has been, and I look forward to 2012 with anticipation.  First things first though, there is some unfinished business that must be attended to by many of my favorites this weekend, but none more than the Super Star Filly, Havre De Grace.  I want to thank her owner Rick Porter of Fox Hill Farm for allowing us to fall in love with this filly and even more so for campaigning her in a way that will allow her to show her greatness and class to the world.

The Forgotten Filly & Mare

Rachel and Zenyatta, Zenyatta and Rachel, some all Rachel, some all Zenyatta. It makes no matter who your favorite lady is there are other ladies out there that are training forwardly and looking forward to the rest of the year. The attention that both of the superstars get is well deserved but the connections of these other fillies and mares are looking forward to doing some spoiling and making a name for their fillies also.

These fillies and mares are the Forgotten Horses.

The forgotten horses right now are Careless Jewel & St. Trinians, thinking back to the last time we saw Careless Jewel on the track she was finishing up at the quarter pole after clicking off some fast fractions in the Ladies Classic at Santa Anita Park back in November during the running of the Breeders Cup.
The last time we saw St. Trinians she was running a respectable 6th in the Santa Anita Handicap considering the trip and the way she was pinched during the running of the race. What are these horses up to right now though you might ask? St. Trinians has been working consistently at Hollywood Park, she was given some time off after the Big Cap and has recorded works of
4/5 - 4f-51.20,
4/12 - 5f 1.03.80,
4/19 - 4f-50.80.
4/26 - 5f-1:02.20
5/3 - 5f-1:01.80
5/14 - 6f-1:13.60
5/24 -6f-1:13.40

Careless Jewel on the other hand had been working like a monster since being shipped from Palm Meadows to Keeneland her works since Feb 1st have been.
2/27 - 4f :50
3/5 - 5f 1:01.20
3/11 - 5f 1:01.40
3/19 - 5f 5f 1:00.60
4/1 – 6f 1.12.40
4/9 – 6f 1.11.00
4/17 – 5f 57.80
5/2 - 5f :58.80
5/9 - 1:11.20
She had seemed to be breathing fire and looking to do something serious here pretty soon, unfortunately she has run into a couple of set backs that caused her to miss the La Troinne and now the shuvee, I am hoping both come back to the track and run huge for the rest of the year.

It will be interesting to see the schedules that are planned out for the rest of the year for these contenders, these are very impressive horses who in any other year would be the focus on the horse racing world, unfortunately for the horse and the connections many feel that these don’t breath the same air as Rachel and Zenyatta . There are a number of races that could possibly be on the horizon:
La Troienne S.
Stephen Foster H.
Ogden Phipps H.
Ruffian H.
Whitney H.
Personal Ensign S.
Woodward S.

Hopefully we will see competitive races with the super stars taking steps up in class to possibly face males, and here's hoping that the 2 time eclipse winning mare out in Cali will be allowed to removed her head from the synthetic sand out there in Cali and run in a champion ship campaign.