Letruska noses Monomoy Girl for Apple Blossom victory

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Letruska upset two champions Saturday at Oaklawn Park, where she came back along the rail to edge champion Monomoy Girl by a nose in the Grade 1, $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap.

It was another 6 1/2 lengths back in third to champion Swiss Skydiver.

“It’s like in a movie,” winning trainer Fausto Gutierrez said. “When she started to come back and I saw a real chance to win, the movie had a happy ending.”

The Apple Blossom, which had its first seven-figure running Saturday, closed out the Racing Festival of the South. It shared a card with the Grade 2, $1 million Oaklawn Handicap won by Silver State.

Letruska ($8.80) moved to the lead soon after the start of the Apple Blossom, and took the field through fractions of 23.56 seconds for the opening quarter, 47.96 for the half-mile and 1:12.26 for six furlongs, as Swiss Skydiver tracked along the inside and Monomoy Girl did the same to her outside.

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Letruska was sandwiched by the champions coming to the quarter pole, as Monomoy Girl rolled up to her on the outside and Swiss Skydiver did the same from the rail. Monomoy Girl proceeded to move to the lead coming to the eighth pole, but things got tighter as the wire was in sight. Letruska fought back under Irad Ortiz Jr. and won the photo while covering the 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:43.14.

Letruska earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 102.

“She’s very special,” Gutierrez said. “She’s a real great horse. After this race, she showed me she’s a champion. Physically, she’s spectacular. And the speed that she has - and the speed goes a long distance – she’s a racehorse.”

Monomoy Girl had won her last six starts leading up to the Apple Blossom, including the Grade 3 Bayakoa at Oaklawn in her 6-year-old debut in February. She was the 124-pound highweight and the favorite in the Apple Blossom. Letruska carried 118.

“I thought we had it,” said Brad Cox, who trains Monomoy Girl. “The filly on the inside was game and battled back. I thought we ran a winning race. We took some ground loss to the winner. Six pounds may have got to us late. At that level, it really means something. We signed up for it. We took it on. It didn’t work in our favor.”

Florent Geroux is the regular rider of Monomoy Girl.

“[She] made the lead and just started wandering around at the end,” Geroux told publicity at Oaklawn. “It’s too bad we got caught today.”

Gutierrez noted the Apple Blossom outcome helped soothe a tough beat one start earlier, when Letruska was edged by a head by the Cox-trained Shedaresthedevil in the Grade 2 Azeri at Oaklawn. In that race, Letruska toted five more pounds than the winner of the 2020 Kentucky Oaks.

“You know how difficult that was in March,” he said. “Now this changed it. It’s part of the races.”

Gutierrez said Letruska has a long-range goal of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. He said the path she will take to the race is to be determined.

Gutierrez praised the Apple Blossom ride of Ortiz, calling his talent with a horse “magical.”

Robby Albarado rode Swiss Skydiver.

“I’m not going to fault her by any means,” Albarado told publicity at Oaklawn. “She was in a good spot the whole way. It was really a match race from the five-eighths pole home. Everybody changed positions. She had a great chance turning for home to go on with it and didn’t. Maybe second race back, who knows? She’ll come back.”

Swiss Skydiver was in good order in the immediate aftermath of the race Saturday, trainer Kenny McPeek said.

“She seems to be okay,” he said. “She didn’t fire her best shot. We’re trying to figure it out and see if there’s a reason."

Cox said Monomoy Girl was cooling out well Saturday.

"So far, so good."

Letruska is a Kentucky-bred daughter of Super Saver who races for her breeder, St. George Stable. She went 6 for 6 in Mexico, and was that country’s champion 3-year-old filly in 2019. She has now won six stakes in the United States, the biggest being the Apple Blossom.

Letruska earned $600,000 to improve her career record to 13 wins from 18 starts for earnings of $1,157,319.