Porter sending Havre de Grace, Joyful Victory to Jones

Bill Denver/Equi-Photo

Havre de Grace, with jockey Jeremy Rose after winning the Cotillion, is among the Rick Porter horses being transferred to Larry Jones.

Havre de Grace, who was third in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Ladies' Classic, and Joyful Victory, the fifth-place finisher in the BC Juvenile Fillies, are among five horses that Rick Porter plans to transfer from trainer Tony Dutrow to Larry Jones for the Oaklawn Park meet that opens in January.

Jones on Thursday said he planned to return to training after the first of the year. He had retired in November 2009. Prior to that, Jones trained a number of graded stakes winners for Porter, including Hard Spun, Eight Belles, Kodiak Kowboy, Old Fashioned, and Friesan Fire.

“It was a very difficult decision to send some horses from Tony, whose done a nice job with them,” Porter said Friday. “I just made a business decision to give them to Larry. Larry and I have had what I consider a very good relationship. We’ve been talking all summer whether he was going to get back into racing or not.”

Dutrow began training for Porter after Jones announced his retirement, and will continue to have horses for Porter’s Fox Hill Farm.

“When Larry retired, I went out and talked to a group of trainers and I decided on Tony,” Porter said. “I decided to give him all of my horses. I don’t like to give all my horses to one trainer, but in this particular case I thought it was the best move. Tony and I had some success together, and he’s retaining a number of my horses, and Larry’s getting these five.”

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The package will also include Winslow Homer, the Curlin winner at Saratoga in August, and promising 2-year-olds Commander and Spin Zone. Havre de Grace and Joyful Victory are being freshened at a farm in Ocala, Fla., and will soon be joined by Winslow Homer, who has been recuperating from a condylar fracture sustained in the Curlin.

“We got a great report on him yesterday, after the radiographs came back,” Porter said of Winslow Homer. “He is going to be going to Ocala to Vinery along with Havre de Grace and Joyful Victory, and those three horses are going to take a little breather and start up training down there under Ian Brennan.

“Larry’s going to determine what the protocol is going to be as far as how much time they’re turned out, and start up a little training.”

From there, the horses will head to Oaklawn, which opens on Jan. 14. Havre de Grace, who this fall won the Grade 2 FitZ Dixon Cotillion over Blind Luck, is a longterm candidate for the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom on April 15. Joyful Victory, meanwhile, is a candidate for the 3-year-old filly series at Oaklawn that culminates with the Grade 2 Fantasy. Porter won the Fantasy in 2005 with Round Pond, and again in 2008, with Eight Belles.