Havelock Happy to be Back on Home Turf

It can probably be said that Havelock just isn’t much of a traveler. The Maryland-bred six-year-old gelding, with four graded-stakes victories to his credit, recently went across the pond to try his luck on UK turf , but came away with only a pair of also-ran results. On Saturday he made his US return a winning one, coming from last in a 10-horse field to claim the $150,000 Grade III Woodford Stakes sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on the Keeneland turf, his second graded-stakes score in five races this year, and second Woodford in three years.

Passes them all coming out of the turn

Taking advantage of a four-horse duel up front that produced a speedy 21.64 first quarter-mile, Havelock bid his time on the backstretch, was angled out coming out of the turn and set down for the drive. Asked for his best at the top of the stretch by jockey Garrett Gomez, he veered slightly to the outside and then accelerated to hit the front by mid-stretch. The 4-1 third betting choice, he finished two lengths ahead of 25-1 longshot Expecting Cash, with Spring to the Sky another neck back in third.

2011 BC Turf Sprint was a disappointment

The win just may have earned Havelock another chance at a Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint title. In 2011 off his Woodford win he went to the BC at Churchill Downs but got caught up in a jam at the three-eighths pole and was forced to check and was forced wide just as he was ready to make a run from less than three lengths off the lead. A son of Great Notion out of the New Zealand mare Piconeach, Havelock is trained by Darrin Miller, and now sports a record of nine wins and three thirds in 25 lifetime starts.