Letruska makes it look easy again, this time in Spinster

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Letruska solidified her status as one of the heaviest favorites for the 2021 Breeders’ Cup by posting another easy front-running triumph Sunday at Keeneland in the 66th running of the Grade 1, $500,000 Spinster Stakes.

On the lead from the first few strides, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. allowed a couple of rivals to draw to within about a length of Letruska with a half-mile remaining in the 1 1/8-mile Spinster, but he was merely toying with the competition. By the quarter-pole, the 5-year-old mare had opened back up, and she was kept to mild pressure down the stretch in prevailing by 1 3/4 lengths over Dunbar Road.

“She is doing just unbelievable right now,” Ortiz said. “She was moving good out there. She didn’t go that fast today, but she did it easy, relaxed. When I asked her, she was there.”

Letruska paid $2.80 as a heavy favorite in a field of six fillies and mares after finishing in 1:49.01 over a fast track. Dunbar Road had another 2 1/4 lengths on Bonny South, who was followed in order by Crystal Ball, Envoutante, and Town Avenger. High Regard was an early scratch.

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The Spinster is a Win and You’re In event toward the Nov. 6 BC Distaff at Del Mar, but the expenses-paid berth essentially goes unclaimed, given that Letruska already had won three such qualifiers this year. The Kentucky-bred daughter of Super Saver now has won six of seven starts in 2021, including wins in the Apple Blossom, Ogden Phipps, and Personal Ensign, all of them also Grade 1s.

“She’s a superstar,” said Fausto Gutierrez, who trains Letruska for the St. George Stable of Mexican billionaire German Larrea. “She doesn’t have anything to show, but these kinds of races, there is a lot of pressure when you are the big favorite.”

Amid mostly sunny and breezy conditions, Letruska had her ears pricked when setting splits of 24.00, 47.89, and 1:12.52, pretty much as she pleased. She passed the furlong pole 3 1/2 lengths in front, after which Ortiz, the superstar rider in from New York for the day, gave her only a couple of well-spaced thwacks of a right-handed whip.

While Letruska has done much of her training at Keeneland this year, Gutierrez said he will ship her as early as possible to Del Mar, where the stable area opens Oct. 23 and morning training begins Oct. 25. The 54-year-old trainer reiterated that he has no intentions of running Letruska versus male rivals in the BC Classic, as had been briefly pondered earlier in the year. “Boys with boys and girls with girls,” he said.

The $2 exacta (4-1) paid $9, the $1 trifecta (4-1-2) returned $9.90, and the 10-cent superfecta (4-1-2-6) was worth $2.71.

The Spinster ended the opening three-day FallStars Weekend at this 17-day fall meet along with two other Win and You’re In races, the Indian Summer and Bourbon, both for 2-year-olds on the turf. Those supporting stakes were the final legs in the new Keeneland Turf Pick 3 (races 6-8-10), which returned $135 for the $3 minimum on $154,641 in handle.

Following Sunday's action, Keeneland is dark for two days before a five-day week starts Wednesday with the last of 10 Win and You’re In races at the meet, the Grade 2 Jessamine for 2-year-old turf fillies.