Two Oaklawn winners score G1 triumphs at Belmont
The two biggest winners on Oaklawn’s Million Dollar Saturday played winning encores in Grade 1 classics on the Belmont Stakes undercard.
Letruska validated her Apple Blossom Handicap upset in the $480,000 Ogden Phipps. After beating champions Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver April 17 in Hot Springs, the Kentucky-bred Mexican champion defeated two Brad Cox-trained 4-year-old stakes winners with Bonny South second and Shedaresthedevil third. Jose Ortiz replaced injured brother Irad aboard the 5-year-old Letruska, scoring her 14th victory in 19 starts.
Silver State scored his fourth stakes win of the year and sixth consecutive in the $955,000 Metropolitan Handicap. The 4-yearold Hard Spun colt added the Met Mile to Oaklawn victories in
the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap, Essex Handicap and Fifth Season. By My Standards, a two-time Hot Springs stakes winner, was second and Knicks Go, a 2020 winner at Oaklawn and in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile for trainer Cox, ran fourth as 4-5 favorite.
Ricardo Santana Jr. rode the winner for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, the second Met Mile triumph for both.
Letruska, in the Distaff, and Silver State, in the Dirt Mile, received “Win and You’re In” berths to the Breeders’ Cup World Championships in November at Del Mar. Arkansas horseman Willis Horton (Marshall) races Silver State in partnership with Ron Winchell.
Letruska led throughout the Ogden Phipps, carrying co-high weight of 122 pounds through a mile and sixteenth in 1:41.25, her winning margin a comfortable 2 3/4 lengths. Fausto Gutierrez trains the Super Saver mare for breeder St. George Stable, Letruska’s Apple Blossom victory the first in an American Grade 1 race for a Mexican champion. She paid $4.40, $2.70 and $2.10 on Saturday.
“This is back-to-back Grade 1 wins,” said Gutierrez. “She showed her potential. This is a speed horse that can run long distances. She confirmed what we saw in the Apple Blossom. She is a very sound filly and I hope she continues like this.”
Bonny South finished second by a length over 2020 Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil, a two-time Oaklawn stakes winner for co-owner Staton Flurry of Hot Springs. Shedaresthedevil, 8-5 second choice in the betting, finished third by 10 1/4 lengths.
The Ogden Phipps field was reduced to five after Swiss Skydiver and Valiance were scratched after running temperatures. “I don’t like that to happen because it could happen with any horse,” Gutierrez said. “But, in strategy, I would prefer not to have those horses in there.”
Letruska, said Cox, “was impressive and we really didn’t have any excuses. We had nothing for her.”
Silver State hugged the rail down the stretch while his nearest rivals were carried wide. Carrying 120 pounds, getting weight from the next three horses, Silver State went a mile in 1:35.45 and paid $13.40, $6.30 and $3.80. Santana and Asmussen previously won the Met Mile in 2018 with Bee Jersey for owner-breeder Charles Fipke.
Arkansas-owned Caddo River, an Oaklawn stakes winner for trainer Cox and breeder John Ed Anthony’s Shortleaf Stable, finished last of six in the Grade 1 $392,000 Woody Stephens. Drain the Clock ($17), trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., won by a neck over even-money favorite and Oaklawn-raced Jackie’s Warrior.
Drain the Clock marked the third winner on the card for Jose Ortiz, who filled in for his injured brother, Irad, who fell from a horse Friday at Belmont. “Unfortunately, it seems every time you get hurt, for some reason your horses start running,” Jose said. “They find a way to win.”
Later, for the same reason, Jose picked up the mount on Belmont Stakes runner Known Agenda from trainer Todd Pletcher.