Mexican Champion Letruska Under The Radar In Apple Blossom Showdown Sponsored by:
Letruska and Jesus Castanon win the Houston Ladies Classic at Sam Houston Race Park
Clearly, the stars of the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (Grade 1) for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles Saturday at Oaklawn are Eclipse Award winners Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver.
As for the small supporting cast, the most accomplished of the four other entrants is Letruska for trainer Fausto Gutierrez and breeder/owner St. George Stable LLC (German Larrea Mota-Velasco).
A champion in Mexico for her Mexican connections, the speedy Letruska has won 12 of 17 lifetime starts, including the $125,000 Shuvee (G3) Aug. 30 at Saratoga and the $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic (G3) Jan. 31 at Sam Houston. In her return to Oaklawn, Letruksa finished second, beaten a head by Shedaresthedevil, in the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) March 13. The Azeri is the final major local prep for the Apple Blossom.
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Monomoy Girl preparing for her return to the races in the Bayakoa Stakes
If Monomoy Girl were a boy and a prospect for the 2015 NFL Draft, the evaluation probably wouldn t have been overly flattering.
Monomoy Girl was by Tapizar, not Tapit, purchased at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $100,000 not $1 million and debuted on the grass in September 2017 at Indiana Grand, not Saratoga.
But her story mirrors that quarterback from the University of Michigan, deemed too skinny and slow to make it big in the NFL. Tom Brady was a sixth-round selection in 2000, the 199
th player overall, and the seventh quarterback taken. Brady, 43, recently won his seventh Super Bowl and now has more rings than any NFL franchise.
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Wicked Whisper and Joe Bravo win the Miss Preakness Stakes on Oct. 3, 2020
Wicked Whisper was poised for a championship in the fall of 2019. Now, it s a career reboot and step one in 2021 is the $150,000 Pippin Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1 mile Saturday at Oaklawn.
Probable post time for the Pippin, the eighth of nine races, is 4:47 p.m. (Central). First post for the second of 57 scheduled race days is 1 p.m. (Central).
Wicked Whisper is the slight 3-1 program favorite for the Pippin, which drew a field of 12 and is Oaklawn s first of three preps for the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 17. The series continues with the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) Feb. 15 and the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) March 13.
Tohill, 57, Eyes 4,000-Win Milestone With Detour To Oaklawn Sponsored by:
Ken Tohill is back at Oaklawn for the 2021 meet
Ken Tohill enters 2021 chasing a career milestone. That chase begins at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark., where the veteran jockey will be riding regularly for the second time after winning 22 races from 172 mounts in 2014 to tie for seventh in the standings.
According to Equibase, racing s official data gathering organization, Tohill, 57, entered Saturday with 3,928 career victories to rank 84
th in North American history. Only 77 riders in North American history, through Friday, had reached 4,000, according to Equibase.
“That s something I didn t think 15 years ago was even a possibility,” Tohill said. “Now, I always said I m not quitting until after 4,000.”
Welder Attempts To Tie All-Time Win Record At Remington Park Sponsored by:
Welder cruises to a 5-1/2 length win in the $70,000 Silver Goblin Stakes on Friday, Nov. 13, 2020 under jockey David Cabrera. The win was the millionaire gray’s fourth straight in the race and his 11th Remington Park stakes win in his career, a new local record.
Two-time Oklahoma Horse of the Year Welder is costing Remington Park a lot of money in ink. Virtually every time he steps on the track here, Remington has to re-write its history book.
Such is the case on Saturday, Dec. 19, when this 7-year-old Oklahoma-bred millionaire gelding will be trying to tie the track record for most career wins at Remington Park – 15. If he wins the $34,000 Guthrie Sprint allowance race on the next-to-last night of racing this meet, he would move into a three-way tie with Highland Ice and Elegant Exxactsy. Each of those horses won 15 times at Remington Park. The Guthrie goes as the eighth race and is schedule