Letruska's path points to Breeders' Cup Distaff

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Fausto Gutierrez had Letruska out grazing on a beautiful Sunday morning at Oaklawn Park, and was enjoying time with the mare who a day earlier added her name to a long list of outstanding winners of the Apple Blossom Handicap.

She also established herself as one of the top members of her division.

Letruska defeated two champions in the Apple Blossom, a Grade 1, $1 million fixture. She came back along the rail under Irad Ortiz Jr. to edge Monomoy Girl by a nose. Swiss Skydiver finished third. For the effort, Letruska earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 102.

“She came back good,” Gutierrez said Sunday. “Everything is in order. She’s a very healthy horse. She looks nice.”

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Gutierrez said the path moving forward with Letruska is to be determined, but the main objective is to make the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in November at Del Mar.

“We’ll check the different events they have and try to finish in the Breeders’ Cup in November,” he said. “We’ll maybe run in a month and a half or two months. Now that she’s won a Group 1, we need to select more carefully what is next.”

Letruska has been based at Palm Meadows, a training center in South Florida. She shipped into Oaklawn for last month’s Grade 2 Azeri and finished second by a head. Gutierrez elected to keep the mare at Oaklawn in advance of the Apple Blossom.

“I think I will stay in this area,” he said Sunday. “I’ll probably just go to Kentucky. She’ll train there and we’ll decide what is next.”

Gutierrez has 12 horses in training at Palm Meadows.

“She and maybe another one will probably go to Kentucky,” he said. “It depends on what the next race is. Florida now is going to be very hot.”

Letruska went over $1 million in earnings Saturday, and Gutierrez said she’s the first millionaire for her owner and breeder, St. George Stable, which is based in Mexico. She’s also the top horse trained by the 52-year-old Gutierrez, a native of Mexico City who has been training since the 1980s.

Letruska won the first six races of her career in Mexico, where she was that country’s champion 3-year-old filly of 2019. She has now won six stakes in the United States, among them the Grade 3 Shuvee at Saratoga, the Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic at Sam Houston, and the Grade 3 Rampart at Gulfstream Park. Letruska also defeated older males over 1 1/4 miles in the 2019 running of the Copa Invitacional del Caribe at Gulfstream.

The Apple Blossom on Saturday was the latest thriller in the race first run in 1958. Last year, Ce Ce won by a head over Ollie’s Candy, and in 2019, champion Midnight Bisou was a nose winner over Escape Clause.