Havre de Grace re-routed from Apple Blossom to Churchill's La Troienne

HOT SPRINGS, Ark.- Horse of the Year Havre de Grace will most likely make her next start in the Grade 2, $300,000 La Troienne at Churchill Downs after being withdrawn from consideration for two of Oaklawn Park's biggest races, the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap early Saturday afternoon, and later in the day, the Grade 2, $400,000 Oaklawn Handicap.

The La Troienne, a 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares, will be run May 4.

“That would be the next best [race] that sets her up for the Grade 1 Phipps in New York,” said Rick Porter, who owns Havre de Grace.

The $400,000 Phipps, a 1 1/16- mile handicap for fillies and mares, will be run at Belmont Park on May 28.

Porter said Saturday that Larry Jones, who trains Havre de Grace, was en route to Oaklawn to pick up the mare, where she has been based since April 2. She is to return with Jones to Kentucky.

Porter withdrew Havre de Grace from consideration for the Apple Blossom shortly after the weights for the race were released on Saturday afternoon. She was highweighted at 123 pounds, with Porter’s main concern the six pounds Havre de Grace would have to give Plum Pretty, the Kentucky Oaks winner who was weighted at 117.

The Apple Blossom field possibles include It’s Tricky, 119; Plum Pretty, 117; Tiz Miz Sue, 115; Abinsthe Minded, 114; Twelve Twenty Two, 113, and She’s All In, 112. Entries for the race will be drawn Tuesday.

Havre de Grace won last year’s Apple Blossom during a Horse of the Year campaign in which she also captured the Woodward over males at Saratoga in September, and the Beldame at Belmont Park in October. She also ran fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.