HOT SPRINGS — Expectations for the Grade I $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap for fillies and mares 4 years old and up at Oaklawn Racing Casino resort will remain clear until the start.
Post time for today’s Apple Blossom, which will cover 1 1/16 miles and is the fifth of 12 races on Oaklawn’s card, is scheduled for 2:18 p.m.
The two championship-winning morning-line favorites are Letruska, trained by Fausto Gutierrez, and Ce Ce, trained by Santa Anita Park-based Mike McCarthy. Letruska won last season’s Apple Blossom and returns as the 7-5 expected favorite in today’s field of five. Ce Ce, winner of the 2020 Apple Blossom, is the second choice at 2-1.
Letruska thrilled fans wearied from the covid-19 pandemic with her upset win over worldwide superstars Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver in the 2021 Apple Blossom.
“It’s a short field on numbers, but a big field on quality,” Gutierrez said.
Letruska, a 6-year-old daughter of Super Saver, is entered off a win in the Grade III Royal Delta at Florida’s Gulfstream Park on Feb. 26. Letruska won five consecutive Grade I starts last year before her 10th-place finish in the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar near San Diego last November. For that run, beginning with the Apple Blossom, she earned the 2021 Eclipse Award as the champion older dirt female.
Ce Ce is the 2021 Eclipse champion female sprinter who returned to her route roots with a win in Oaklawn’s Grade III Azeri Stakes covering 1 1/16 miles on March 12, her last start.
“There were plenty of options for her, but she’s two for two over that racetrack,” McCarthy said. “There’s a large purse of a million dollars. It kind of made the Apple Blossom a no-brainer.”
Clairiere, a 4-year-old daughter of Curlin from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, had one Grade I win in three attempts as a 3-year-old. She finished fourth of 11 in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and is the 5-2 second choice in the Apple Blossom.
Asmussen spoke confidently of Clairiere’s Apple Blossom role last weekend.
“Don’t want to trade places with anybody,” he said. “Promise.”
Joel Rosario, the 2021 Eclipse jockey of the year, rode Clairiere’s 2022 return, a 6 1/2-length runaway win in an optional claiming race at Fair Grounds in New Orleans on March 16. It was her last start.
“It was an easy race for her,” Rosario said. “It looked like she did everything the right way. She’s a nice horse, and so we’re very excited about Saturday to see how she does.”
