Havre de Grace holds Blind Luck in Cotillion

Havre de Grace (inside) would not let rival Blind Luck by this time (Bill Denver/Equi-Photo)

Fox Hill Farms’ HAVRE DE GRACE (Saint Liam) spent her three races prior to
Saturday running second against stakes company by two necks and a nose. The last
two of those defeats came at the hooves of leading sophomore filly Blind Luck
(Pollard’s Vision), but the tables were turned on Saturday when Havre de Grace
held that one by a neck on the wire of the $750,000

Cotillion S. (G2) at the track formerly known as Philadelphia Park.

Blind Luck settled into her familiar rear-running position while Havre de
Grace took up a stalking trip to the outside of pacesetter Bonnie Blue Flag
(Mineshaft) through fractions of :23 4/5, :47 1/5 and 1:10 4/5. Havre de Grace
tugged her way to the front under regular rider Jeremy Rose and proceeded on
home as Blind Luck was just beginning her rally down the center of the track.
The multiple Grade 1-winning miss unleashed a determined run, but it was a case
of too little, too late as she was was forced to settle for second as Havre de
Grace crossed under the wire in a final time of 1:40 4/5 for 8 1/2 furlongs on
the fast main track.

Havre de Grace (inside) and Blind Luck have faced off in their past three races (Bill Denver/Equi-Photo)

Havre de Grace now boasts a 7-3-3-1 career line and more than doubled her
lifetime earnings to $675,175 with this, her first stakes victory. The lightly
raced bay began her career at Delaware Park last fall, running third prior to
breaking her maiden by 4 3/4 lengths in off-the-turf tests. She returned from a
near eight-month layoff to add an allowance win to her record on May 10, then
made her stakes bow a neck runner-up effort in the June 5 Go for Wand S. The
three-year-old lass faced off against Blind Luck in both the Delaware Oaks (G2)
and Alabama S. (G1) in her next two, and finally earned a measure of revenge
against that rival with this win.

Bred in Kentucky by Nancy S. Dillman, Havre de Grace sold for $380,000 as a
Keeneland September Yearling to her current connections. She is out of the
winning Easter Bunnette (Carson City), who has since produced an unnamed
yearling filly by Hard Spun and a weanling Bernardini colt. Easter Bunnette is
herself a daughter of stakes victress and Grade 2 runner-up Toll Fee (Topsider),
who is most known as the granddam of multiple Grade 1 turf queen Riskaverse
(Dynaformer) as well as Grade 3 scorers Cozzy Corner (Cozzene) and Tasteyville
(With Approval).