Battle of champions may eclipse Apple Blossom standards

Jockey Florent Geroux rides Monomoy Girl to win the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., on Nov. 7, 2020. - Photo by Michael Conroy of The Associated Press
Jockey Florent Geroux rides Monomoy Girl to win the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., on Nov. 7, 2020. - Photo by Michael Conroy of The Associated Press

In almost 50 years as Oaklawn president, Charles J. Cella dreamed of bringing together champions Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta for a special running of the Apple Blossom Handicap.

Those plans fell through when Rachel Alexandra went off form after being Horse of the Year at 3, winning the Preakness and two other races against males along with the Kentucky Oaks. Zenyatta propped up the race with a second Apple Blossom victory and, at age 6, was named Horse of the Year in 2010 despite a career-ending second (her only loss in 20 races) in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Cella, who died in 2017, looked at the 1978 running of the Apple Blossom, won by Peter Brant's Northernette (trained by Shug McGaughey), as one that gave the track enormous prestige. Susan's Girl (1975) was its first million-dollar winner, others including North Sider, Bayakoa, two-time winner Paseana, 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace and Azeri, its only three-time winner and for whom a prep race is named.

Saturday's 56th running of the Apple Blossom stands on its own merits as a show-stopper. All eyes will be on Oaklawn for a battle of champions, reigning Eclipse Award winners Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver.

Four others entered the mile-and-sixteenth Grade 1 for older fillies and mares, carded as race 11 and scheduled for 6:09 p.m.

Monomoy Girl, a two-time champion at age 6, carries 124 pounds, 2 more than Swiss Skydiver. Monomoy Girl won their only meeting in the last Breeders' Cup Distaff when Swiss Skydiver, in her first start against older horses, stumbled at the start and finished seventh at Keeneland.

Monomoy Girl, in Oaklawn's Grade 3 Bayakoa Feb. 27, and Swiss Skydiver, by almost three lengths in Santa Anita's Grade 1 Beholder Mile March 13, won their seasonal debuts impressively. Swiss Skydiver breaks from post two with Robby Albarado aboard and Monomoy Girl from outside post six under Florent Geroux.

Monomoy Girl, trained by Brad Cox, is 14 of 16 for earnings of more than $4.5 million, majority owner Bradley Wayne Hughes (Spendthrift Farm) extending her career after buying the mare for $9.75 million at Keeneland in November one day after the Breeders' Cup.

"She is the definition of greatness," bloodstock agent Liz Crow said after the Bayakoa, Monomoy Girl's sixth-straight victory and 12th consecutive that she crossed the finish line first (counting a 2019 disqualification). In her first Oaklawn appearance, she won the Bayakoa by two lengths over a sloppy track as 1-5 favorite.

Peter Callahan's Swiss Skydiver, 7 for 13 with earnings of more than $2 million, scored two Grade 1 victories last year, becoming only the second Preakness-winning filly since 1924 when downing Kentucky Derby winner Authentic by a neck Oct. 3 at Pimlico. Earlier winning the Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga, Swiss Skydiver scored a 16-1 upset in Oaklawn's Grade 3 Fantasy May 1, though Fantasy third-place finisher Shedaresthedevil turned the tables in the Sept. 4 Kentucky Oaks.

(Shedaresthedevil, like Monomoy Girl trained by Cox, returns in the Grade 1 La Troienne on Derby week at Churchill Downs. Staton Flurry of Hot Springs is a co-owner of Shedaresthedevil and elected not to run against Monomoy Girl in the Apple Blossom and Breeders' Cup Distaff.)

About the Apple Blossom rematch, Swiss Skydiver trainer Ken McPeek says "we're coming with a beast." He called the weights "fair enough," mindful that Monomoy Girl carried 124 and Swiss Skydiver 121 in the weight-for-age Distaff. "After this race," he said, "we'll have to give her weight then."

Controlling speed may come from multiple Grade 3 winner Letruska, switching to Eclipse Award-winning jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. after getting off slowly in the Grade 2 Azeri when beaten a head. Letruska (118 pounds) has a 2020 Oaklawn victory for trainer Fausto Gutierrez and worked a half-mile in 47.20 seconds Sunday morning.

Another Broad, Chance to Shine and Getridofwhatailesu complete the field. Chance to Shine, trained by Chris Hartman, placed fourth in the Bayakoa, in which Another Broad, from the Steve Asmussen barn, trailed. Getridofwhatailesu, another Cox trainee, is an in-form closer who won the $150,000 Pippin Jan. 23 and ran third, beaten two lengths, in the Azeri.

Eleventh race, 6:09 p.m.: Purse $1 million, Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap, fillies and mares 4-year-ols and up, 1 1/16 miles.

  1. Another Broad (Santana/Asmussen)115

  2. Swiss Skydiver (Albarado/McPeek)122

  3. Letruska (I. Ortiz/F. Gutierrez)118

  4. Chance to Shine (Tohill/C. Hartman)114

  5. Getridofwhatailesu (Arrieta/B. Cox)117

  6. Monomoy Girl (Geroux/B. Cox)124

Swiss Skydiver will run without medication.

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