TERRA FIRMA
Exercise rider Adolfo Garcia heads to the track on Terra Promessa, one of the expected contenders in today’s Grade 1 $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park. The 4-year-old filly has four Oaklawn stakes wins in two years but is a likely Apple Blossom underdog to champion Stellar Wind.
Beholder and Songbird evoked memories of Affirmed and Alydar’s battles long ago when they dueled to the wire in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff at California’s Santa Anita Park.
In what winning jockey Gary Stevens called “a street fight,” Beholder prevailed by a nose, completing her racing career at age 6 as a four-time champion. It was the first loss in 12 starts for Songbird, an Eclipse Award winner in both seasons on the track.
With Beholder retired and Songbird yet to make her 4-year-old debut, the search for a temporary leader in horse racing’s older female division forms a backdrop in today’s Grade 1
$600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park.
Stellar Wind, 3-year-old filly champion in 2015, makes her first start since the Breeders’ Cup Distaff Nov.
4, likely as an odds-on favorite on the meeting’s penultimate card. Meeting five opponents at a mile and sixteenth, Stellar Wind is the 3-5 program choice over four-time Oaklawn stakes winner Terra Promessa (8-5) and last-out Oaklawn stakes upsetter Streamline (8-1).
Assigned high weight of 122 pounds, Stellar Wind (by Curlin) breaks from post three with Victor Espinoza aboard.
“Anything can happen in a race, but we’re here with a good horse and
she’s in great shape,” said trainer John Sadler. “All the things I really can’t control is what I worry about. Everything we’ve done, we’re very happy with.”
Stellar Wind defeated Beholder twice last year in Southern California, finishing her
4-year-old campaign with a 7-2-1 record from
12 starts and career earnings of $1,453,200. “We wanted to bring her back one more year at 5,” Sadler said. “She was a late-developing filly and got better last year. We think this could be a real good year for her.”
The Apple Blossom has produced four champion older mares in the last 10 years — Close Hatches (2014), Havre de Grace (2011) and Zenyatta (2008 and 2010) — with two race winners named Horse of the Year — the Larry Jones-trained Havre de Grace in 2011 and the John Shirreffs-conditioned Zenyatta in 2010.
Terra Promessa can join Bold ‘n Determined (1980 and ‘81) as Fantasy and next-year Apple Blossom winners at Oaklawn. Taking the Pippin in her 4-year-old debut, Terra Promessa notched her third Grade 3 victory over the track in February’s Bayakoa (named for the 1989 Apple Blossom winner) but had a nightmarish trip when fifth in the Grade 2 Azeri March 18.
Getting 4 pounds from Stellar Wind, Terra Promessa is a front-running threat from the rail post with jockey Jose Ortiz, her Pippin rider Jan. 14.
“That’s who she is,” said Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, whose champion filly Untapable won the 2015 Apple Blossom.
Streamline scored her second Oaklawn stakes victory in the mile-and-sixteenth Azeri. She finished 2 1/4 lengths behind Forever Unbridled and ahead of favored Untapable when second in last year’s Apple Blossom.
Brian Williamson trains homebred Streamline, last year’s Pippin winner, for a group including mother-in-law Nancy Vanier, widow of prominent Midwest trainer Harvey Vanier and the racemare’s Illinois breeder. Chris Landeros rides Streamline from outside post six carrying
117 pounds.
Trainer Brad Cox has a modest goal for Tiger Moth (15-1, 113), third in the Azeri after a Jan. 22 Oaklawn victory in her 5-year-old debut. To that end, he enlists four-time defending Oaklawn riding champion and meet leader Ricardo Santana Jr., drawing post five.
“It’s about trying to hit the board and get the Grade 1 placing,” Cox said. “Obviously with the great purse, if you’re third it’s a great payday. And, she showed she liked the track.
Completing the field are Durango (30-1, 112, Ramon Vazquez) and Divine Elegance (30-1,
113, Glenn Corbett). Divine Elegance, formerly trained by Cox, has won twice at the meeting but ran against claimers as recently as October.
The 10-race card starts at 1:30 p.m. Race 9 on the program, the Apple Blossom is set for
5:10 p.m.