Graceful Princess scores important victory for dam, Havre de Grace

The regally bred Graceful Princess delivered a victory for her family as she posted a $31 upset victory in the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher Stakes on Saturday at Monmouth Park.

Graceful Princess, who races as a homebred for Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm, is by perennial leading sire Tapit and out of 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace. Gainesway Farm, which stands Tapit, reported that the 5-year-old mare is Tapit’s 90th graded stakes winner. She is the first stakes winner at any level for her dam, whom Pope purchased for a record $10 million out of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale in November 2012.

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Graceful Princess has now won 3 of 13 career starts. She finished third in the Grade 3 Doubledogdare Stakes earlier this year at Keeneland before her breakthrough victory.

“It’s very exciting for her to get a win like that, being bred as well as any horse in the world,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “For her to add graded black type to her rèsumè is great for her, the dam, and the siblings. It was a great win for the Whisper Hill team.”

Havre de Grace, from the only crop of 2005 Horse of the Year Saint Liam, won 9 of 16 career starts, including six graded stakes. She captured three Grade 1 events in her championship campaign, taking the Apple Blossom Handicap, the Woodward Stakes against males, and the Beldame.

The 14-year-old mare is the dam of three winners from four starters, with Graceful Princess joined by the winners Heavenly Grace, also by Tapit, and River Front, by War Front. Perfect Grace, the mare’s 3-year-old filly by Tapit, has been second in all three of her starts this year. Havre de Grace is also the dam of an unraced 4-year-old colt by Tapit, named Marvelous Guy, who is based in Japan, and an unraced juvenile colt by the same stallion, named Saint Tapit.

Barren when bred to Triple Crown winner Justify in his first season at stud, Havre de Grace delivered her most recent foal, a colt from that young stallion’s second crop, in March of this year.