Tag: Fausto Gutierrez

Champion 3-Year-Old Malathaat won her lone 2022 race: the Grade 3 Doubledogdare at Keeneland in April. She is the 5/2 second choice for Saturday's Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont Park. (Image: Mathea Kelly)

This Year’s Ogden Phipps Resembles a Filly and Mare All-Star Race

- 4 min read

Forgive yourself if you look at Saturday’s Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont Park thinking you’re looking at a sneak preview of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff five months early. There’s defending Ogden Phipps champion Letruska, who made last year’s race look like a glorified workout. Her 2 3/4-length gate-to-wire victory […]

Letruska won her second consecutive Grade 1 Apple Blossom, making her only the fourth filly/mare to win the race multiple times. (Image: Coady Photography)

Letruska Emerges from Apple Blossom No. 2 in Familiar Territory

- 2 min read

This Letruska script is one we’ve seen before. After all, it bears a striking resemblance to the 2021 script for the powerful, now 6-year-old mare. Win Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park. Head to Kentucky to train for the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont Park. Leave no mistake who […]

Azeri winner Ce Ce is the 2/1 second favorite in search of her second Apple Blossom Handicap in three years. (Image: Coady Photography)

Apple Blossom Blooms With Two Champions, Four Grade 1 Winners

- 3 min read

There are only five horses in Saturday’s Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park, a statistic that trainer Rob Atras puts into perspective for everyone. “It’s a small field, but it’s got like a Breeders’ Cup kind of feel to it,” Atras told Oaklawn Park’s Jennifer Hoyt. That’s probably the […]

Letruska's victory in last January's Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic opened the gate on an incandescent, Eclipse Award-winning season. After Breeders' Cup disappointment, the 6-year-old mare opens her 2022 season at Saturday's Royal Delta Stakes at Gulfstream Park. (Coady Photgraphy)

Eclipse Award Winner Letruska Ready for Her 2022 Return

- 3 min read

The last time we saw Letruska, she was more human and less equine machine. The next time we’ll see the newly minted Eclipse Award winner is next Saturday at Gulfstream Park for the Grade 3 Royal Delta Stakes. The 6-year-old warmed up for her first race since the Nov. 6 […]

Letruska captured August's Grade 1 Personal Ensign by a half-length overe Bonny South. The two, along with fourth-place Dunbar Road, tangle again in Sunday's Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland. (Image: NYRA/Coglianese Photos)

Letruska Looms Large and in Charge Over Her Spinster Stakes Rivals

- 3 min read

When it comes to running against Letruska, Kenny McPeek – who sends Envoutante against the standout mare in Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinster — summed up the frustration he and his fellow trainers face. “That’s the thing,” McPeek told the Daily Racing Form. “If you try to run with her early, […]

Letruska has been the most impressive older female horse in 2021, as her last-out victory here in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis illustrates. She is the 6/5 favorite to win her fourth consecutive graded-stakes race in Saturday's Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga. (Image: Coady Photography)

Letruska Brings Formidable Form Into a Deep Personal Ensign Field

- 5 min read

Say this for the 2021 Personal Ensign; Letruska may be the clubhouse leader as Champion Older Filly of the Year, but her rivals for that title don’t scare easily. That explains why the Grade 1 Personal Ensign – one of Saratoga’s six Grade 1s on Saturday — features a deep, […]

Letruska and jockey Jose Ortiz wired the field in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps earlier this month. The pair just became the favorites for Saturday's Grade 2 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs. (Image: Seth Wenig/AP Photo)

Red Hot Mare Letruska Will Run Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs

- 2 min read

Trainer Fausto Gutierrez turned Churchill Downs’ Spring Meet closing day from impressive to electric when he told the Daily Racing Form on Sunday that his star mare, Letruska, will run the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Stakes. That turns the already-deep, 1 1/8-mile Fleur de Lis into a Grade 1-worthy […]

Swiss Skydiver owns stakes victories at five tracks, including two here at Santa Anita Park. She attempts to add Belmont Park to her stakes resume in Saturday's Grade 1 Ogden Phipps. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Swiss Skydiver Finally Lands at Belmont Park for Deep Ogden Phipps

- 4 min read

Somehow, the Swiss Skydiver Stakes Tour bypassed Belmont Park. Somehow, the Champion 3-Year-Old Filly missed the biggest racing sandbox of them all – Big Sandy. How did a filly who won six graded stakes races over five racetracks miss America’s largest racetrack, Belmont Park? An oversight? Well, it’s an oversight […]

The nose -- in this case, Letruska's -- knows victory. The mare held off champion Monomoy Girl by a nose to win the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap. It marked Letruska's first Grade 1 win in the US. (Image: Coady Photography)

New Distaff Star Letruska Basks in the Shine of Her Apple Blossom Upset

- 3 min read

Plans for horse racing’s newest female star – you know her as Letruska – remain fluid entering the week, less than 48 hours after the 5-year-old mare’s stirring Apple Blossom Handicap victory. ‘I think we’re going to take a little bit more time with her,” trainer Fausto Gutierrez told Oaklawn […]