Fair Grounds: Havre de Grace to get weekend work

NEW ORLEANS - Trainer Larry Jones has scheduled a weekend workout at Fair Grounds for 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace, who easily won the March 17 New Orleans Ladies Stakes in her first start of 2012. Jones said he still needed to find someone to work Havre de Grace, since regular work rider Jen Brasser is headed to Keeneland with Jones-trained horses bound for Kentucky this week.

Jones also rides Havre de Grace most days, and said the mare has been sending signals that she needs more strenuous exercise than daily gallops.

“She tried to run off with me backwards yesterday, and she never does that,” he said. “And the other day she was really hard to get pulled up. She needs to do something this weekend. She can’t go another 10 days without a work.”

Jones and owner Rick Porter won’t commit Havre de Grace to the Apple Blossom Handicap until the weights for the race are released on April 7, but Havre de Grace is shipping to Oaklawn Park on Monday, Jones said, and her daily training there will be overseen by Cindy Jones.