Havre de Grace held off a late bid by Flat Out on Saturday and defeated males in her first attempt against the opposite sex in the $750,000 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
Ramon Dominguez was aboard the 4-year-old filly, the second female to win the Woodward in three years. Rachel Alexandra, a 3-year-old, defeated older males in this race two years ago en route to being voted Horse of the Year.
The Larry Jones-trained Havre de Grace ran 1-1/8 miles in 1 minute, 49.18 seconds. She took the lead with three-sixteenths of a mile to run and finished 1-1/4 lengths clear.
''I felt pretty good at the three-eighths pole, when we were coming and I wasn't seeing anyone making a huge move,'' Jones said. ''I kept telling myself with Flat Out picking up nine pounds from his last race, it had to start telling on him somewhere. About the sixteenth pole he started leveling off and stopped chasing us. We felt pretty good it was going our way.''
Havre de Grace, the winner of four races from five starts this season and the nation's second-ranked older female behind her rival, Blind Luck, earned $450,000 for Fox Hill Farm. She returned $6.50 on a win bet.
Rule, the early pacesetter, finished third in the field of eight.
The decision to run Havre de Grace against males in the Woodward was made with a late-season run at the Horse of the Year title in mind.
''I definitely think we're in the picture,'' Jones said. ''I think we were in the picture before, maybe a low-profile picture, but I think this puts us up there with everyone else. We have to continue on. It's not over today, by any means. We said to ourselves, we were going to put her in a position to earn a championship if she was good enough. By coming here today we gave her the opportunity to move closer to a championship.
"I think she did it. I think we're in front of the division.''
Two other major stakes races were run at Saratoga on Saturday.
Ask the Moon, winner of the Ruffian Invitational here on July 31, scored an identical, front-running victory in the $300,000 Personal Ensign Invitational for fillies and mares, running 1-1/4 miles in 2:04.21 with Javier Castellano in the saddle.
The Martin Wolfson-trained 6-year-old, the favorite in a field of six, was 2-3/4 lengths clear Pachattack at the wire. He earned $180,000 for the Farnsworth Stable and paid $5.90. The Personal Ensign, originally scheduled for Aug. 28, was postponed when racing was canceled at Saratoga in anticipation of Tropical Storm Irene.
Jackson Bend, ridden by Corey Nakatani, found room between horses with a furlong to run and drew away in the stretch to a 3-1/4-length win over Jersey Town and seven others in the $250,000 Forego Stakes. The Nick Zito-trained 4-year-old ran 7 furlongs in 1:22.08. He earned $150,000 for owners Robert La Penta and Fred Brei. Jackson Bend paid $8.90.
