Letruska Faces Ce Ce in 1 million dollars Apple Blossom

Coach Fausto Gutierrez didn’t take long to create the framework for Letruska campaign in 2022.

Still on my back Santa Anita . Parkless than 24 hours after the daughter of Super savings A disappointing 10th finish as 8-5 favorites in the $2 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1), Gutierrez points to a campaign spanning eight races in 2021 – with a race in December 2020 was also done with a brutal pace to account for such a weak attempt after seven wins (four in class 1) and a second in eight her previous start.

A fresh and healthy 6-year-old Letruska will bid for consecutive wins in the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) at Oaklawn Park when she made headlines about a small but outstanding field of 5 people including 2 holders of the Eclipse Tournament and 4 1st class winners in the April 23 issue of $1 million, second wealthiest race for older women in the United States.

“A race like this will attract an important group of horses,” Gutierrez said of the 1/16-mile test. “There are some very tough horses in this race.”

The main plot of Apple Blossom will revolve around a battle of champions between Letruska, who was voted the older female champion even though she lost in Distaff and Bo Hirsch’s Ce Ce , who shone on November 6 at the World Championships and won the Breeders’ Filly Cup and Mare Sprint (G1) to become the Eclipse Award-winning female sprinter. This field also includes students who won the first grade Clairiere and Maracuja in a race that deserves to be billed as an April Breeders’ Cup match, although Gutierrez expected the mare’s performance on Saturday to be much better than the one she produced in Distaff.

This time, the $2.3 million earner from a successful mare mare Appeal has raced just once after Distaff on November 6, with her solo start in about 5 and a half months since. was an easy three-way long, running ahead to score on February 26 Royal Delta Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

“She is ready. She is a very fresh horse now. After a long year we gave her about five weeks in Ocala to rest after the Breeders’ Cup and she is better now.” Gutierrez, who has beaten Distaff twice, said. winner Monomoy Girl with arrows in last year’s Apple Blossom.

Ce Ce may have put the Eclipse Award in a trophy case for Hirsch and coach Michael McCarthy, but she has more gears than the typical sprint champion. The Elusive Quality mare won the 2020 Apple Blossom award and is gearing up for this year’s race with a three-quarter length win at Oaklawn’s Azeri Stakes (G2) by the same 1/16-mile distance as the Apple Blossom before one. Quality schools include Pauline’s Pearl and 2020 Longines Kentucky Oaks winner Shed mosthedevil .

The 9 of 18 winner started with a perfect 2 to 2 at Oaklawn, purebred daughter of Belong to me mare Miss Houdini earned $2,003,100 and took 5th place.

The quality of the pitch is reflected in some hesitancy about operating the connections of Maracuja. .’s 4-year-old daughter Honor code who upset the 3 year old champion Malathaat won last year’s American Oaks Coaching Club (G1), was sent to Oaklawn to prepare for Apple Blossom, and earned the right to claim the April 1 stipend option on the track after more than five months of interim Vacation.

However, the prospect of playing two champions and a 1st place winner in the Stonestreet Stables’ Clairiere has coach Rob Atras wondering if the May 6 La Troienne Stakes (G1) at Churchill Downs may be more suitable for Maracuja.

“We’re in and as of tonight we plan to run,” said Atras, after Maracuja drew the rails at the draw for the position posted April 18. “She’s ready. This is it. It’s a small $1 million field, very attractive, but it’s also a Mini-Breeders’ Cup race. Going from a allowance race to a Breeders’ Cup type race is a tough requirement. with her coming. Let’s get back to this short pre-court break. But the important thing is she’s doing well and she’s there in Oaklawn, so we’ll see how this week goes. .”

Owned by Beach Haven Thoroughbreds, Medallion Racing, Parkland Thoroughbreds and Barry Fowler, Maracuja won 3 of 9 starts and earned $538,200. She was bred by River Bend Farm and Austin and Janie Musselman out of the Regal song of Unbridled mare Patti and purchased for $200,000 from Buck Pond Farm consignment at The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton’s New York Sale of Select Yearlings.

Clairiere (track 3), a hybrid Curlin chubby off the mare who won the most prize level 1 level 1 Cavorting (Bernardini), won the Cotillion Stakes (G1) in 2021 at the age of 3, beat Maracuja.

The pitch is by Barry Ostranger Miss Imperial a 6 year old child Music by Maclean mares trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, who finished third behind Maracuja in the April 1 race at Oaklawn.