Breeders' Cup 2011: Filly Havre De Grace Is Ready to Star in Leading Role

The very fact that a filly can compete in the 2011 Breeders' Cup is a testament to the hard work and training done by her crew, but Rick Porter and Larry Jones of Havre De Grace feel like they can do more than just compete.

They feel this filly as a shot to win. In fact, they feel this is their time.

It may seem like an improbable matchup, especially considering that some believe that you shouldn't mix the sex of horses when racing, but if you know the back-story behind this crew perhaps you would understand their faith.

The team of Porter and Jones have been through the ups and downs of the sport, and there is no doubt that they know how to race fillys.

In 2008 they watched their filly, Eight Belles, finish second in the Kentucky Derby, only to watch her suffer fatal ankle fractures while being pulled up.

The crew returns to the big stage with Havre De Grace, who is No. 2 in the morning line behind last year's winner Uncle Mo, and they feel like she is destined to take the leading role, according to Jennie Rees of the Courier-Journal:

"

“Well, it would be a good story,” Jones, a Hopkinsville, Ky., native, said of a victory. “And believe me, I don’t go in here thinking, ‘Well, we’re going to win this one.’ But I do feel like it’s kind of our turn, like our time is coming in.”

Porter said it would be unfair to Havrede Grace to have taken the conservative route of having her run in Friday’s Ladies’ Classic, where she would be a prohibitive favorite.

“She belongs in this race,” he said. “She fits. I think everybody knows she fits. I know she fits. I knew Eight Belles fit. And she proved she fit. We had a disaster, but I wouldn’t run a filly against the colts — and quite honestly, I wouldn’t run most any horse in a big race against that group of horses — if I didn’t think we had a very good chance of being 1-2-3. If I don’t belong, I just step aside.”

Porter and Jones aren’t looking for vindication in the Classic. They’re looking for Horse of the Year.

Havrede Grace will be all but assured of racing’s top honor should she win the Classic. (And maybe even if she just hits the board, given the way 3-year-olds and older males have been beating each other.)

“I’d like to make her Horse of the Year,” Porter said. “But more importantly, I’d like to have her name up there with Rachel Alexandra’s and Zenyatta’s. If we can win the Classic, which isn’t easy, I’d like to put her up there where she has the respect of those horses.”

"

If Havre de Grace can take the Classic, she would put herself in line to be talked about in the same sentence of the great fillys like Zenyatta, Rags to Riches, Rachael Alexandra and Goldikova.

She's a winning horse, having taken first in eight of 14 career starts, and she's never been worse than third.

Maybe you were wondering why her team, and the rest of the racing world, felt so good about her.

Now you know, this filly is ready to take center stage in the show of her life.