Letruska Faces Ce Ce in $1M Apple Blossom

It didn't take trainer Fausto Gutierrez long to devise the framework for Letruska 's 2022 campaign.

Still on the backstretch of Santa Anita Park, less than 24 hours after the daughter of Super Saver   finished a disappointing 10th as the 8-5 favorite in the $2 million Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1), Gutierrez pointed to a long and hard eight-race 2021 campaign-with a Dec. 2020 race tossed in as well-that conspired with a brutal pace to explain such a weak effort after seven wins (four in grade 1 stakes) and a second in her previous eight starts.

He vowed to map out a less ambitious 2022 campaign for St. George Stable's homebred mare while still focusing on major races.

As one of the year's most important and richest dirt races for older females approaches, Gutierrez has kept to his word.

A fresh and fit 6-year-old Letruska will bid for successive wins in the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) at Oaklawn Park when she headlines a small but stellar field of five that includes two reigning Eclipse Award champions and four grade 1 winners in the April 23 edition of the $1 million stakes which is the second-richest dirt race for older females in the United States.

"A race like this will attract an important group of horses," Gutierrez said about the 1 1/16-mile test. "There are some very tough horses in this race."

The main storyline for the Apple Blossom will center on the battle of champions between Letruska, who was voted the champion older dirt female despite her loss in the Distaff, and Bo Hirsch's Ce Ce , who shined on Nov. 6 at the World Championships and won the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) to become the Eclipse Award-winning female sprinter. The field also includes grade 1 winners  Clairiere  and Maracuja  in a race worthy of billing as an April Breeders' Cup matchup, though Gutierrez expects a much better performance from his mare Saturday than the one she produced in the Distaff.

When Letruska captured last year's Apple Blossom, she came into the race with three races since Dec. 12, a schedule that underscored her fatigue in November.

This time, the $2.3 million earner out of the Successful Appeal mare Magic Appeal has raced just once following the Nov. 6 Distaff, with her lone start in the roughly 5 1/2 months since then being an easy, front-running three-length score in the Feb. 26 Royal Delta Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

"She is ready. She is a very fresh horse now. After a long year, we gave her about five weeks in Ocala to rest after the Breeders' Cup and she is stronger now," said Gutierrez, whose mare defeated two-time Distaff winner Monomoy Girl  by a nose in last year's Apple Blossom.

Letruska will carry the highweight of 124 pounds and give away three pounds to Ce Ce and Clairiere while breaking from post 2.

Ce Ce may have put an Eclipse Award in the trophy case for Hirsch and trainer Michael McCarthy, but she has more gears than the typical sprint champion. The Elusive Quality mare won the 2020 Apple Blossom and tuned up for this year's race with a three-quarters-of-a-length win in Oaklawn's Azeri Stakes (G2) at the same 1 1/16-mile distance as the Apple Blossom over a quality field that included Pauline's Pearl  and 2020 Longines Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil .

A winner of 9 of 18 starts with a perfect 2-for-2 mark at Oaklawn, the homebred daughter of the Belong to Me  mare Miss Houdini has earned $2,003,100 and drew post 5.

The quality of the field is reflected in some indecision about running on the part of Maracuja's connections. The 4-year-old daughter of Honor Code  , who upset 3-year-old champion Malathaat  to win last year's Coaching Club American Oaks (G1), was sent to Oaklawn to prep for the Apple Blossom and won an April 1 allowance optional claimer over the track after slightly more than five months on the sidelines.

Yet the prospects of running against two champions and a grade 1 winner in Stonestreet Stables' Clairiere had trainer Rob Atras wondering if the May 6 La Troienne Stakes (G1) at Churchill Downs might be a better fit for Maracuja.

"We entered and as of tonight we're planning to run," Atras said after Maracuja drew the rail at the April 18 post position draw. "She's ready. It is a small field for a $1 million purse which is very appealing, but it's also a mini-Breeders' Cup race. Going from an allowance race to a Breeders' Cup-type race is a tough ask with her coming back on short rest against a field this dee. But the important things are that she's doing good and she's there at Oaklawn, so we'll see how see does this week."

Owned by Beach Haven Thoroughbreds, Medallion Racing, Parkland Thoroughbreds, and Barry Fowler, Maracuja has won 3 of 9 starts and earned $538,200. She was bred by River Bend Farm and Austin and Janie Musselman out of the Unbridled's Song mare Patti's Regal Song and was bought for $200,000 from the Buck Pond Farm consignment at The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's New York Sale of Select Yearlings.

Clairiere (post 3), a homebred Curlin   filly out of the multiple grade 1-winning mare Cavorting (Bernardini), won the 2021 Cotillion Stakes (G1) as a 3-year-old, beating Maracuja.

Trained by Steve Asmussen, she was fourth in the Distaff, losing by a little less than a length, and returned to the races March 16 with a 6 1/2-length romp in an allowance optional claimer at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.

Rounding out the field is Barry Ostranger's Miss Imperial , a 6-year-old Maclean's Music   mare trained by Jerry Hollendorfer who was third behind Maracuja in the April 1 race at Oaklawn.