Letruska will point to BC Distaff, will pass on Classic, trainer says

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - After Letruska continued her dominance of the filly and mare handicap division with her popular and extremely game half-length triumph over Bonny South in Saturday’s Grade 1 Personal Ensign, the question that begged to be asked trainer Fausto Gutierrez the following morning was whether there's a temptation to start thinking about potential Horse of the Year honors and to point his filly to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, rather than the Distaff, this fall at Del Mar.

Gutierrez wasted little time giving his answer.

“If you can be in a big race (Distaff) where you’re 6-5, why go into one (Classic) where you will be 8-1,” Gutierrez responded. “And more than that, it’s another level of competition. If yesterday she had won by 10 (lengths) and ran a 110 Beyer (Speed Figure), maybe. My son asked me this morning what would happen if our filly ran against Knicks Go in the Classic. I told him she wouldn’t win, but that Knicks Go probably wouldn’t win, either.”

Gutierrez said Letruska, who actually earned a 101 Beyer for her victory in the Personal Ensign, came out of the race “just fine,” noting she was already looking to kick and play by the time she returned to her stall after the race. But he has been around the game long enough to totally understand not only the scope of her performance here the previous afternoon, when repulsing numerous bids from start to finish to earn her third Grade 1 win in her last four starts, but the toll such a gut-wrenching race can take on any horse.

“She put in a big effort, and all these types of efforts have a price,” Gutierrez acknowledged. “But she’ll have time to recover. I put three races near to each other earlier in the season because she asked for that. Now she’s had two months off, so we can bring her back in the next one in October (G1 Spinster at Keeneland on Oct. 10) and then the Breeders’ Cup. Even though she’s not nominated and has to be supplemented, that’s the goal because it’s the most important race of all.”

Gutierrez, 54, began his training career in 1985 in his native Mexico, where he had 150 horses under his care just a few years ago. But since coming to the U.S. with top horses such as Kulkulkan, Jala Jala, and now Letruska, his outlook and career goals have changed. Letruska is one of fewer than a dozen horses he has in his barn at present.

“I decided I needed to move, I needed to change, I want to stay here in the U.S. where the racing is better,” said Gutierrez, who earned a degree in journalism and covered horse racing right out of college prior to, and then while pursuing, his training career. “Right now, Mexico has a lot of problems with horse racing. Although if she (Letruska) were not here, I can’t imagine where I’d be.”

Gutierrez then recalled a story of another mare under his care, Mactua, who also changed his life back in Mexico, 30 years ago.

“Mactua was an American horse by Bates Motel who I was training, and she won 12 stakes,” Gutierrez said. “Like Letruska, that mare helped me make an important decision. Gave me an excuse to make the choice to stay in horse racing full time at that period in my life.”

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Gutierrez said winning the Personal Ensign at Saratoga is yet another in a series of career highlights provided to him by Letruska during this dream season.

“I thought winning the race at Oaklawn (Apple Blossom) was absolutely the most special and historical moment of my career. Then the race at Belmont (Ogden Phipps), and now here,” Gutierrez said. “But when we get to the Breeders’ Cup, the competition will be even tougher. And the other wins just become history. Nice history in any form, but just history.”