Apple Blossom Handicap 2022: Odds, preview, analysis, more
Two champion mares will square off Saturday in an event both have previously won.
Letruska (7-5) is morning-line favorite for the Grade 1, $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap. Post time from Oaklawn Park is 3:18 p.m. EDT, with TVG showing the 1 1/16-mile race for older fillies and mares.
Letruska aims to win the Apple Blossom for the second straight year, while 2020 winner Ce Ce (2-1) stands as her chief rival. The two were named in February as 2021 Eclipse Award winners in the Older Dirt Female and Female Sprinter categories, respectively.
Trained by Fausto Gutierrez, Letruska upset two-time Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl by a nose in the 2021 Apple Blossom. Chart footnotes described the champions’ “extended stretch duel” as “an epic battle of wills.”
Letruska now sports a 24: 18-1-1 record, including her time in Mexico, with four Grade 1 wins. Jockey Jose Ortiz will pilot the Super Saver mare, who started her 6-year-old season Feb. 26 by winning Gulfstream Park’s Royal Delta Stakes (G3).
Ce Ce enters Saturday with a career mark of 18: 9-2-3 and three Grade 1 wins, including the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint last November at Del Mar. Trainer Michael McCarthy’s versatile mare is back at two turns this spring, winning Oaklawn’s Azeri Stakes (G2) at 1 1/16 miles March 12.
Clairiere (5-2) and Maracuja (6-1) also bring Grade 1-winning experience into the Apple Blossom. The former won the Cotillion (G1) last September at Parx for trainer Steve Asmussen, while the latter upset champion Malathaat last July in Saratoga's Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) for Rob Atras’ barn.
The lone runner in Saturday’s field without a Grade 1 score is Miss Imperial (12-1) for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. She was third in a local allowance race April 1.
Here is a look at the field for the 2022 Apple Blossom Handicap (trainer and jockey in parentheses) with morning-line odds:
1. Maracuja (Rob Atras, Ricardo Santana Jr.), 6-1
2. Letruska (Fausto Gutierrez, Jose Ortiz), 7-5
3. Clairiere (Steve Asmussen, Joel Rosario), 5-2
4. Miss Imperial (Jerry Hollendorfer, Tiago Pereira), 12-1
5. Ce Ce (Michael McCarthy, Victor Espinoza), 2-1
TimeformUS’ pace projections show Letruska going out to the lead under Ortiz and getting a favorable setup.
Other Saturday stakes
Here is a look at other stakes races of note taking place Saturday across North America. All post times are EDT.
Warrant (2-1) drops to the Grade 3 level after finishing in second place, and a head shy, of Express Train on March 5 in the Santa Anita Handicap (G1). Trainer Brad Cox will give a leg up to jockey Florent Geroux on the 4-year-old Constitution colt, winner of the Oklahoma Derby (G3) last September at Remington Park. Michael Stidham trains Proxy (7-2), who was second March 26 at Fair Grounds in the New Orleans Classic Stakes (G2). Dynamic One (4-1), the 18th-place finisher in the 2021 Kentucky Derby, ran third for trainer Todd Pletcher on March 12 in the Challenger Stakes (G3) at Tampa Bay.
4:54 p.m. – $150,000 Oaklawn Stakes, 3-year-olds, 1 1/8 miles, Oaklawn Park, TVG
Stellar Tap (5-2) for trainer Steve Asmussen is the morning-line favorite for this event that awards its winner, if Triple Crown-nominated, a berth into the Preakness Stakes on May 21 at Pimlico. Jockey Joel Rosario will climb aboard the Tapit colt, who was second April 1 in an Oaklawn allowance race. Cox trains Home Brew (3-1), who returns to the starting gates for the first time since finishing 10th on New Year’s Day in the local Smarty Jones Stakes. The Skipper Too (4-1) was runner-up March 12 in an Oaklawn allowance for trainer John Ortiz.
5:04 p.m. – $200,000 New York Stallion Stakes, Times Square Division, New York-bred 3-year-olds, 6 1/2 furlongs, Aqueduct, FS2
Barese (2-5) drops back into state-bred flight and cuts back in distance after finishing fifth April 9 at Aqueduct in the Wood Memorial (G2). Mike Maker trains and Dylan Davis rides the Laoban colt, twice a stakes victor. Richard Schosberg trains Unique Unions (7-2), who was fourth in the Jan. 9 running of the local Rego Park Stakes, which Barese won. Kazmike (8-1) is still a maiden and makes a stakes bow in career start No. 3 for trainer Dimitrios Synnefias.
5:16 p.m. – $350,000 Elkhorn Stakes (G2), 4-and-up, 1½ miles (turf), Keeneland, TVG
Channel Maker (2-1), a four-time Grade 1 winner, returns to Keeneland for the first time since finishing third in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Turf. Jockey Luis Saez will be up on the English Channel gelding for trainer Bill Mott, who last saddled the 8-year-old to a fifth-place run Nov. 6 at Del Mar in the 2021 Turf. Hugh Robertson trains Two Emmys (7-2), a Grade 1 victor who enters off a March 26 score in the Muniz Memorial Classic (G2) at Fair Grounds. Phantom Currency (4-1) has won three straight races for trainer Brian Lynch, all at Gulfstream Park, including the Appleton (G3) on April 2.
Related: Phantom Currency, Two Emmys lead Elkhorn field at Keeneland
6:41 p.m. – $1 million Oaklawn Handicap (G2), 4-and-up, 1 1/8 miles, Oaklawn Park, TVG
Fearless (9-5) highlights the Oaklawn Handicap field off a win April 2 in Gulfstream Park’s Ghostzapper Stakes (G3), a race named for his sire. Jockey Jose Ortiz gets the call for Pletcher on the 6-year-old gelding, a three-time graded stakes hero. Cox trains Plainsman (5-2), another three-time graded stakes winner who was runner-up March 19 in Oaklawn’s Essex Handicap (G3). Rated R Superstar (5-1) won the Essex for trainer Federico Villafranco and makes the 60th start of his hard-knocking career on Saturday.
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