Mr Havercamp Punches Through in Play the King

Mr Havercamp provided owner/breeder Sean Fitzhenry with a graded stakes victory for his birthday Aug. 25 and punched his ticket to the Sept. 15 Ricoh Woodbine Mile (G1T) in the process when the 4-year-old Court Vision  gelding took the $175,000 Play the King Stakes (G2T) at Woodbine.

Sent postward as the 4-5 favorite for the seven-furlong test over the E.P. Taylor turf course, Mr Havercamp navigated a yielding surface and came through between horses late to score the victory under the guidance of Woodbine's meet-leading jockey, Eurico Rosa Da Silva.

Already a graded stakes winner, 2-1 second choice La Sardane was riding a three-race win streak into his Woodbine debut and charged out for the lead from the inside post. He led the field through a quarter in :23.92 and half in :47.59 while Boreal Spirit stalked outside early on.

Caught behind horses turning for home, Mr Havercamp emerged with the lead down the stretch as the field spread across the track and he surged ahead to score in 1:23.94 by 2 1/2 lengths. He returned $3.80 on a $2 ticket.

Vanish came from last and edged out fellow closer Sweet Little Man in a photo for the place.

"It was pretty tight," said Da Silva of his opening in the stretch. "When you have so much horse you just have to wait for the opportunity to come and he just did everything himself. He's just a very, very nice horse and when you need him, he's there for you. He's a wonderful horse to ride."

"I knew he had a ton of horse and I just hoped he would get through. I felt he would get through and luckily, he did," said trainer Catherine Day Phillips, who was pleased to see Mr Havercamp handle the unfamiliar track conditions resulting from Saturday's rain showers.

"It's an unknown factor, he's never run on a soft turf, and so I don't like unknowns. I was confident in him on a regular turf, so it was a new element in his racing, but he handled it."

Owned by Sean and Dorothy Fitzhenry, Mr Havercamp boasts a perfect 4-for-4 record racing on Woodbine's turf course. The multiple stakes winner, who was back on home turf after a fourth-place finish in the Forbidden Apple Stakes at Belmont Park, has now won six of his nine starts overall for more than $350,000 in earnings.