Letruska fills ‘big cap’ in career, on track,
When he sized up the competition as the horses turned into the stretch, Fausto Gutierrez figured that he might only be getting a consolation prize in the 57th Apple Blossom Handicap.
“When (Monomoy Girl) took the lead and I saw Swiss Skydiver start to go a little bit back, in my mind, I thought second is very good. We finished close,” the trainer of Mexican champion Letruska said about the $1 million Oaklawn matchup Saturday billed as starring two American champion older females.
Then he took another look, and all things seemed possible for the Kentucky-bred, German-owned horse. In a twinkling, it was an international battle with Letruska front and center.
“She started to come back and come back,” Gutierrez said. “I didn’t see the picture very clearly. I went carefully to check the replay and I thought, ‘Oops, we won.’”
Just like that, Gutierrez’ decision to challenge the two American stars was vindicated. Letruska, by a nose, handed Monomoy Girl her first on-track defeat in four years and only the third in 17 career races (a
2019 disqualification included). Swiss Skydiver, whose victory in the first October Preakness clinched the 3-year-old filly title in 2020, finished 6 1/2 lengths farther back in third.
Gutierrez credited his horse, the first American-bred Grade
1 winner to start her career in Mexico, hoping beforehand that Letruska would fill the “big cap” in her career. For the 5-yearold’s second American Grade
1 attempt, producing her 13th victory in 18 starts, the trainer switched to three-time American champion jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.
“For me, this is incredible because I come from a small racetrack in Mexico City,” Gutierrez said. “This horse started her career there. We had the confidence to send her here (United States), and she started to improve, improve and improve. She’s run at different tracks. She’s (won graded stakes) at Houston, Saratoga, Gulfstream. She’s a very tough horse, but this is the best result she’s had in her career.”
Letruska came off a second-place finish to another American Grade 1 winner, Shedaresthedevil, in Oaklawn’s Grade 2 Azeri March 13. Replacing Joel Rosario in the saddle, becoming Letruska’s sixth different jockey in her last nine races, Ortiz was told in effect to put Letruska on the lead and stay there.
“The instructions were, ‘We are the speed of the race,’” Gutierrez said. “She started a little bit slow in the last races. I told Irad, ‘No matter if this happens, you try to move and go in front and set the pace and make the others think.’”
The top three quickly separated themselves from three overmatched rivals, Monomoy Girl widest of all and carrying
124 pounds. Ortiz left the rail open for Swiss Skydiver (122), getting no bites from Robby Albarado in post two, while nursing a short lead on Letruska
(118) from post three. Florent Geroux had Monomoy Girl in gear around the far turn and the 6-year-old dual champion surged ahead in the stretch. That’s when Ortiz, whose late move aboard Whitmore delivered a Breeders’ Cup Sprint upset last fall at Keeneland, went to work.
Ortiz changed whip hands, right to left, in the final sixteenth and propelled Letruska forward. Geroux, meanwhile, saw Monomoy Girl loaf on the lead. Tapizar’s daughter had her head up at the finish while Letruska, by Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, put her nose on the wire.
“For a minute, I thought I was second,” Ortiz said. “But I still had something. I knew my filly had a little bit. I knew (Monomoy Girl) was going to be hard to catch, but I did it. She did it. My filly did it.”
Even with a photo finish, the outcome was clear enough for track announcer Vic Stauffer to extol, “Oh, my goodness, Letruska has turned back the champion!”
Geroux, first-call rider for Brad Cox, Monomoy Girl’s trainer, accepted his mount’s first on-track defeat since 2017.
“Great trip. Just made the lead, she just started wandering around at the end,” Geroux said. “Done that pretty much all her career. It’s too bad we got caught today.”
Of Swiss Skydiver, losing to Monomoy Girl for the second time, Albarado said, “I’m not going to fault her by any means. She was in a good spot the whole way. It was really a match race from the five-eighths pole. Everybody changed positions. She had a great chance turning for home to go on with it and didn’t. … She’ll come back.”
Posting on his Twitter account after the race, Geroux said, “Not the finish we wanted to see but hats off to Letruska and her connection for taking down the Champ! We will come back stronger than ever.”
As for Letruska, Gutierrez said he might think twice about entering Letruska in the seven-furlong Grade 1 La Troienne April 30 on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downns. That is the scheduled next start for Shedaresthedevil, co-owned by Staton Flurry of Hot Springs.
“After this I’m not sure what is the correct decision,” Gutierrez said. “After this big effort we have to reorganize, because she’s one of the tops.”