Mexican star hopes to spoil championship rematch,

Champions Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver so dominate the conversation surrounding today’s Apple Blossom Handicap that another horse in the Oaklawn race risks being overlooked.

That is apt to change if Letruska breaks alertly and shoots to the early lead as expected. A champion in Mexico, Letruska was compromised by a poor start when she ran second, beaten a head, by Shedaresthedevil in the Grade 2 $350,000 Azeri March 13 at Oaklawn. With a rider change to Eclipse Award winner Irad Ortiz Jr., she may hold controlling speed in the Grade 1 $1 million Apple Blossom.

“I know it’s a tough race, but this is the perfect spot to try,” said trainer Fausto Gutierrez, whose horse, assigned 118 pounds, gets weight from both American champions. “We don’t have anything to lose. Any of these horses have to run their best race to win. Of course, Letruska, but Swiss Skydiver needs her best effort and Monomoy, too.”

Post time is 6:09 p.m. for what is listed as race 11 on the program. Race 9 is the Grade 2 $1 million Oaklawn Handicap with an evenly bunched group of eight older males set to go off at 4:49 p.m.

Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver are using the mile-and-sixteenth Apple Blossom for their second starts of the year. Six-year-old Monomoy Girl, a dual American champion for trainer Brad Cox, comes off an Oaklawn victory Feb. 27 in the Grade 3 Bayakoa Stakes, her first local appearance in a 16-race career with 14 victories. Swiss Skydiver, a frequent flyer who won on both coasts last year when named champion 3-yearold filly, scored in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile March 13 at Santa Anita for trainer Ken McPeek, pushing her earnings past

$2 million.

Letruska, by 2010 Kentucky Derby winner and Arkansas Derby runner-up Super Saver, scored an Oaklawn victory last year in a season highlighted by black-type Grade 3 wins in the Shuvee at Saratoga and the Rampart Handicap at Gulfstream Park. Like the highlighted pair in the Apple Blossom, Letruska opened her 4-year-old season with a victory in the Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic Jan. 31. She is bred and owned by St. George Stable LLC of German Larrea Moto-Velasco, a copper mining mogul who bred Letruska in Kentucky.

No horse that started its racing career in Mexico, Gutierrez said, has won a Grade 1 race in the United States. Letruska, in her Grade 1 debut in the United States, placed fifth in the $300,000 Ballerina last August at Saratoga.

“This is the big gap,” Gutierrez said. “Maybe the horses that run in Mexico, in the Triple Crown, run here for a claiming price or for $12,500 (allowance purse). It’s another planet. There’s no comparison. It’s absolutely another planet. It’s not like Argentina or Brazil or maybe Chile — to the level it’s very good.”

Tracking the pace in the Azeri “was not the plan,” Gutierrez said, prompting the change from Joel Rosario to Ortiz, a three-time reigning Eclipse Award winner. Instead of returning to her south Florida base, Letruska stayed at Oaklawn following the Azeri and recorded two works leading up to the Apple Blossom. She went a half-mile in 48.80 seconds April 4 and another in

47.20 seconds last weekend, galloping out five furlongs in 59.40 seconds.

A seven-time stakes winner, Letruska has earned $557,319.

“She’s a very sound filly,” Gutierrez said. “I think 5 years old is the perfect age for her.”

Swiss Skydiver, with Robby Albarado up, breaks from post two and Monomoy Girl, under Florent Geroux, from post six. Monomoy Girl pays a slight weight penalty, 124-122, after the assignments were, respectively, 124 and 121 for the weight-for-age Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland, their only meeting. Swiss Skydiver, coming off a Preakness upset of Kentucky Derby winner Authentic, ran seventh while Monomoy Girl completed a perfect season after missing 2019.

Another Broad (115), Chance to Shine

(114) and Get rid of what ailesu (117) complete the Apple Blossom field. Late-running Get rid of what ailesu, trained by Cox, won Oaklawn’s early-season Pippin and finished third in the Azeri, in which

4-year-old Shedaresthedevil held off Letruska in her seasonal debut.

Shedaresthedevil, of whom Hot Springs horseman Staton Flurry is a co-owner, is being freshened for a Churchill Downs return in the Grade 1 La Troienne on Derby week. Oaklawn’s Grade 3 Honeybee winner and third in the Grade 3 Fantasy last year, Shedaresthedevil upset Swiss Skydiver in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill in September, then was rested for the season after her first race against older horses.

Monomoy Girl was kept in training after selling for $9.75 million in a November Keeneland sale after the Breeders’ Cup. Tapizar’s daughter has won six straight races since a September

2018 disqualification and has not been headed at the wire since her 2-year-old season. The chestnut mare has earned more than $4.5 million.

“We’ll just wait our turn,” Flurry said, “and maybe have a chance next year to run for that Monomoy Girl type of money.”