Although Proud Spell won her last race by five impressive lengths, trainer Larry Jones is quick to point out that the Kentucky Oaks winner is not the type of racehorse that overpowers her opponents.

“She is,” said Jones, “more of a blue-collar girl who shows up for work every day.”

A blue-collar girl who has earned nearly $1.3 million, that is.

Saturday, Proud Spell, the de facto leader of the three-year-old filly division, gets back to work in the 52nd edition of the Grade 1, $250,000 Mother Goose Stakes at a mile and an eighth, in which she will face just three rivals

The Mother Goose will be run as the eighth race on Saturday’s card, which also features the 122nd running of the Grade 1, $400,000 Suburban Handicap presented by Shadwell Farm. Jones will send the Argentina-bred Solar Flare against seven rivals in his second North American start in the mile and a quarter race.

It is Proud Spell, however, who is the star -- and sweetheart -- of Jones’ stable at Delaware Park these days. The daughter of Proud Citizen, owned and bred by former Kentucky governor Brereton C. Jones, won her first three starts at age two, including a 4 ½-length victory in the Grade 2 Matron here at Belmont Park last September before finishing second to divisional champion Indian Blessing in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

She was runner-up to the Eclipse winner in her first start this year in the Grade 3 Silverbulletday at the Fair Grounds, but finally turned the tables with a come-from-behind score in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks, handing Indian Blessing her first career defeat. Following a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Ashland and her victory at Churchill Downs on May 2, she was given some time off before embarking on a summer campaign.

“She’s just been ultra-consistent, ever since we got her,” said Jones from Delaware Park. “In her training, she always found ways to keep up, and she’d win every work by a head or a neck. In her races, whenever Gabriel (Saez, jockey) sets her down, she gets to work.”

Although the Mother Goose drew just four – or perhaps because of it -- Proud Spell might have her work cut out for her. Hamsa, trained by Barclay Tagg, has won both her 2008 starts in come-from-behind fashion, while Music Note has won two of her three lifetime starts by a combined margin of 14 ¼ lengths, also coming from off the pace. Never Retreat, a daughter of Smart Strike, won her first two starts, and then finished third in the Susan’s Girl at Delaware Park on June 14.

“A short field is capable of taking a lot of horses out of their game plan,” said Jones. “Proud Spell is plenty fast enough and is capable of handling whatever pace scenario comes up.”

With Indian Blessing having suffered back-to-back losses, finishing second to Zaftig in the Grade 1 Acorn, Proud Spell is clearly atop the division and Jones hopes she will remain there for the rest of her 2008 campaign, which will include the 92nd edition of the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks on July 19 and the 128th running of the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga on August 16.

“Former Governor Jones and myself don’t think too far ahead,” said Jones with a laugh. “We just want to get through this one first.”