2021 Breeders' Cup Distaff: Thanks to Letruska, Gutierrez is breaking his own story
There is hope, still, for anyone crazy enough to continue in the niche profession of turf writing: Fausto Gutierrez has blazed a path out.
Yes, Gutierrez was a racing handicapper and writer for the Mexican newspaper Reforma off-and-on for about 10 years, starting while he was still a college student and lasting until he, ahem, saw the light.
“I had a section to make picks and comments,” Gutierrez said in an interview at his Keeneland barn before leaving for the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar. “I would fax them to the newspaper. I covered the races at the hipodromo. Horse racing was not very popular, so it did not matter that someone so young was doing it.”
Having grown up in both Spain and Mexico – his father was a banking consultant who traveled between the countries – Gutierrez initially was introduced to racing at the Hipodromo de las Americas in Mexico City by his grandfather, a Jockey Club member. Fascinated with racing as a boy, then acclimatized to the inner workings of the industry as a racing writer when starting out in the early 1990s, he eventually parlayed his connections into a different career as a Thoroughbred trainer. Ultimately, he became the perennial leading trainer in Mexico while working primarily for German Larrea, the billionaire copper producer who is far and away the country’s leading breeder and owner.
On Saturday, Gutierrez, now 54, will reach the height of his fame in racing as the trainer of Letruska, the favorite for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar. As the winner in six of seven starts this year, including victories in four Grade 1 events, Letruska not only is an obvious candidate to become a North American champion in the filly-mare division, but also potentially Horse of the Year, depending on what transpires this weekend.
Reaching this summit has proven quite a journey for Gutierrez, a married father of two who maintains a home in Wellington, Fla. Simultaneous to his turf-writing duties, Gutierrez also was training a handful of horses, and by the late 1990s, as the hipodromo closed for three years amid financial and political chaos, Gutierrez moved his stable to Texas. He competed at Sam Houston, Retama, and Lone Star in 1998-99, compiling a modest record of 20 wins from 182 starters.
Back in Mexico, as Gutierrez eased away from handicapping and writing, Larrea reached out to him in the early 2000s – and before long, they were teaming to win the major races in Mexico on a regular basis. Gutierrez’s return to the U.S. began with the inaugural Clasico del Caribe series – held every December at Gulfstream Park since 2017 – and beginning in 2019, he established a foothold in America, basing himself initially at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida before Letruska’s exploits led him to branch out as 2021 unfolded. He has spent much of this year away from home, working mostly in Kentucky with side trips to Arkansas and New York.
Letruska, bred and owned by Larrea under the nom-de-course of St. George Stable, is a bay 5-year-old Kentucky-bred mare by Super Saver. Her career began with six straight wins in 2018-19 in Mexico, after which she easily won a Clasico del Caribe race in December 2019 at Gulfstream. Gutierrez then tried her on the turf, and Letruska floundered, finishing far back in her first loss.
All 14 of her races since then have been on dirt, and although she has been defeated in four of those, she turned a corner after finishing fourth in the Beldame at Belmont Park in October 2020, when she ran off early and faded badly. Given 10 weeks between races to regroup at Palm Meadows, she then won the Grade 3 Rampart at Gulfstream on Dec. 12, 2020, by an eye-catching 6 3/4 lengths.
The fire was lit. Letruska has been a world-beater since then, with the only blemish on her seven-race record this year being a narrow defeat in March in the Azeri at Oaklawn Park to Shedaresthedevil, one of her chief threats Saturday in the Distaff. Letruska’s audacious front-running style poses a confounding dilemma for her rivals – allow her to go unopposed and she’ll never look back, or try to stick with her early and ruin your own chances.
“She is ready,” said Gutierrez said early this week from Del Mar. “The pressure I feel is for everything to be in order. Obviously when you have a favorite like her, there is pressure. But we have had a very good year and hopefully she will run another good race in the Breeders’ Cup.”
Win or lose Saturday, Letruska has taken Gutierrez to a place he scarcely could have imagined during his earnest youth in Mexico. Indeed, in the Distaff aftermath, he’ll be the fellow facing, not holding, a notepad and recorder.