07/12/2011 1:31PM

Delaware Handicap gets Blind Luck, Havre de Grace

By Joe DeVivo
Email
Benoit & Associates
Blind Luck (above) has beaten Havre de Grace 3 of the 5 times they have met, and will try to beat her again Saturday in the Delaware Handicap.

A five-horse field featuring three millionaires, topped by arch-rivals Havre de Grace and Blind Luck, will contest Saturday’s Grade 2 Delaware Handicap.

Post positions were assigned Tuesday morning for the 1 1/4-mile race for fillies and mares, which is the premier event of Delaware Park’s season, and the big names in the field drew all the odd numbers.

In addition to the lion’s share of the $750,000 purse, the winner will be rewarded with an automatic berth to the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic on Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs.

BREEDERS’ CUP CHALLENGE: Racing schedule, replays, and past winners >>

Locally based Havre de Grace will break from post 3 as the 124-pound highweight under Ramon Dominguez. She has been installed as the 4-5 favorite on the track’s morning line.

The Del Cap will mark the sixth meeting in the past 12 months between Havre de Grace and last year’s 3-year-old filly champion Blind Luck. Based in California, Blind Luck has finished ahead of Havre de Grace in three of their five meetings, including a nose decision in last summer’s Delaware Oaks. The Oaks was one of three races in which either a neck or a nose separated Havre de Grace and Blind Luck at the wire.

In their most recent clash, Havre de Grace defeated Blind Luck by 3 1/4 lengths in the Grade 3 Azeri at Oaklawn Park.

Blind Luck, who will carry two pounds less than Havre de Grace, drew post 5 and will be ridden by Garrett Gomez.

Defending champion and millionaire Life At Ten will seek to snap a four-race losing streak while breaking from the rail under David Cohen. Trainer Todd Pletcher, who tied Henry Clark’s record by winning his fourth Del Cap last year, is hopeful Life At Ten can wake up while racing on the same surface where she cruised to a three-length victory last July. She is listed at 5-1.

The two outsiders, both 20-1, are the Maryland-based Love’s Blush, whose best race was a second in the 2010 Maryland Racing Media, and Thundering Emilia, a Group 3 winner in Peru who won the off-the-turf John Rooney Memorial in her United States debut.