Mr Havercamp heading south for winter

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Catherine Day Phillips, who has enjoyed recent local stakes success, will be at Del Mar this weekend with Dixie Moon in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Day Phillips matched her career-high with her fifth stakes win of the meet Oct. 21 with Mr Havercamp, who romped to a 7 1/2-length victory in the Bunty Lawless Stakes. Mr Havercamp has recorded four wins from five starts this year, and is now in the conversation for Canadian champion 3-year-old male.

Moving forward, Day Phillips said Mr Havercamp may not race until the winter. Day Phillips will have stalls at Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, Fla., following the conclusion of the Woodbine meet Dec. 10, and could start Mr Havercamp at Gulfstream Park.

“I think there are some races (in Florida), and I don’t want him too far away from me,” she said. “I’d like for him to have a bit of a break at some point. We’ll figure that out when we get back from California.”

With back-to-back stakes wins over a mile on the Woodbine turf course, the Sean and Dorothy Fitzhenry homebred could be in for a big year in 2018. Day Phillips said she’d like to keep Mr Havercamp on the turf, but still doesn’t know what distance is best for the son of Court Vision.

“He’ll tell us what he wants to do,” she said. “The idea is to kind of back off a little bit and maybe get a race into him in Florida on the way back up here. The Fitzhenrys have always wanted to race a nice horse at Keeneland, so maybe that’s an option, too. There’s a lot of things to think about.