Champion Letruska Returns to Defend Apple Blossom Title
At 0h03, on April 22, 2022 • By OAKLAWN PARK
Letruska spent roughly two months at Oaklawn during the 2021 meeting. While her 2022 stay will be much shorter, the goal remains the same – win Saturday’s $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles.
Now an Eclipse Award winner, Letruska got her first feel of the Oaklawn surface this year by jogging two laps the wrong way and schooling in the gate after the first renovation break Thursday morning under jockey Geovanni Franco. The track was rated muddy.
Letruska, who arrived Wednesday, is trying to become just the fourth horse to win multiple runnings of the Apple Blossom, following Hall of Famers Paseana (1992, 1993), Azeri (2002, 2003, 2004) and Zenyatta (2008 and 2010).
Trained by Fausto Gutierrez, Letruska recorded her breakout victory nationally in last April’s Apple Blossom when she edged two-time Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl by a nose. Letruska rode that momentum to three more Grade 1 victories and an Eclipse Award as the country’s champion older dirt female. Her more calculated 2022 racing schedule resumes Saturday.
