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Gutierrez: Letruska Poised For Big Effort In Distaff, Thanks To Lessons Learned In 2020

Trainer Fausto Gutierrez is having his most successful year in the United States, and it's mostly thanks to stable star Letruska, who this week will carry the trainer to his first Breeders' Cup as she takes aim at the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff.

Gutierrez revealed at a press conference Nov. 1 that he had first dreamt of a trip to the Breeders' Cup with the filly in 2020, when she picked up a win in the Added Elegance Stakes at Gulfstream in June. After she put in a disappointing effort in her Grade 1 debut in the Ballerina however, he had to change course.

Gutierrez has dominated Thoroughbred racing in Mexico alongside top owner St. George Stable, which owns Letruska. He'd made a brief foray into American racing in the 1990s, when Hipodoromo de las Americas was closed and he had no choice but to bring some of his horses to Texas. He also sent runners to the Clasico Del Caribe, which came to Gulfstream Park in 2017 (readers may remember his runners Kukulkan and Jala Jala in that race series). Last year, St. George's German Larrea decided to experiment with a small American string, which Gutiererz bases at Palm Meadows. While Gutierrez has more than 100 horses in Mexico, he told Thoroughbred Daily News in 2020 the American contingent would be much smaller, around 15 horses.

This year, he has saddled 60 starters in the States with 16 winners and earnings of over $2.2 million, thanks largely to Letruska.

Now five years old, the daughter of Super Saver and Successful Appeal mare Magic Appeal is nearly perfect in her 2021 season, picking up wins in the G1 Spinster, Personal Ensign, Ogden Phipps and Apple Blossom. She's missed having an undefeated year by just a head in a tough beat in the Grade 2 Azeri to Shedaresthedevil.

“When I decided her campaign, I selected the races depending on how she's doing, how she trains,” he said. “Every day it's like she tells me, tomorrow we can go to stronger competition.”

Gutierrez said Monday that in hindsight, he made a few mistakes in plotting her 2020 campaign. Looking back, he said he entered her in at least one Oaklawn race he could have skipped, feeling pressure to get a start in while he could as the COVID-19 pandemic threw transportation plans and condition books into the air. He said he also broke with his usual racing schedule for her, sending her to the G3 Shuvee at Saratoga after her disappointing run in the Ballerina because he didn't want to leave the track totally empty-handed; now he wonders if the races coming three weeks apart were too much.

But good things came out of that learning year, too – Gutierrez said he realized in her G2 Beldame loss that she did not need blinkers. He thought the filly seemed distracted and worried by Horologist, and actually needed to see her competitors better. Since removing them, she has won all but one race.

So far, Gutierrez said he is happy with the way Letruska has made the trip. She had a 15-hour journey but came off the van at Del Mar her usual self.

“After I saw last Saturday how she came out of the van and the attitude she had, the next day I felt very comfortable,” he said. “I saw this horse is ready for this competition. She is a horse with a very special mind. She is ready for this.”

Although he's expecting big things from the mare, Gutierrez also acknowledged that just to make it to the Breeders' Cup is a tremendous accomplishment.

“This is a real dream, because nobody can think this could happen,” he said. “When I had this horse in Mexico City I understood she's a special horse, a horse who could run fast. But to be here, it's like another planet.

“I try to do the best work. I don't have a lot of horses with this quality. I just have one. Sometimes I feel like Rambo – I have to go with all the other ones, horses who have seven or eight horses [like this.]”

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Letruska Continues Her Dominance Of Distaff Division With Spinster Win

Far and away the best that the distaff division has had to offer in 2021, Letruska demonstrated why she is already the heavy favorite for the Breeders' Cup Distaff, taking the lead right out of the gate in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes and easily holding off a field of five others at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.

Under jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., the 5-year-old mare followed the same strategy she used in her last-out victory in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., easily moving to the front as the field ran into the first turn. Setting fractions of :24 for the first quarter and :47.89 for the first half, Ortiz gave his mare a breather on the backside and then picked up the pace again around the far turn.

Into the stretch, Letruska kicked away from the field, putting 3 1/2 lengths between her and second-place Dunbar Road before Ortiz powered her down. At the wire, the daughter of Super Saver was 1 3/4 lengths in front, running the 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.01.

Letruska paid $2.80, $2.10, and $2.10. Dunbar Road $3.40 and $2.20. Bonny South paid $2.40.

As part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series, Letruska's win in the Spinsters earns her another fees-paid, guaranteed spot in the starting gate for the Breeders' Cup Distaff. The mare also has victories in other Win and You're In events, including the G1 Ogden Phipps, the G1 Fleur de Lis, and the Personal Ensign.

Bred in Kentucky by owner St. George Stables, Letruska is out of the Successful Appeal mare Magic Appeal. She is trained by Fausto Gutierrez. With her win in the G1 Spinster, the 5-year-old mare has six wins in seven starts in 2021, for a lifetime record of 22-17-1-1 and career earnings of $2,236,459.

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Lestruska Has No Trouble With Antoinette, Envoutante In Fleur De Lis Stakes

Three weeks ago, Letruska was at Belmont Park in Elmont, Ny., dominant in her two and three-quarter length victory in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes. Saturday, she put in another sensational performance in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Stakes at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., taking the lead at the break, setting the pace, and showing why she is the current leader in her division.

At the start, Letruska veered slightly to the right, straightened out, and quickly took a two-length lead over Antoinette, with Shawnee Stakes winner Envoutante and Brad Cox-trained Vault behind them. She controlled the pace throughout the race, despite Florent Geroux keeping Antoinette just behind a length off of Letruska, first on the rail and then moving his filly to the outside of the leader as they approached the final turn. Jose Ortiz and Letruska, though, had nothing to fear from this field of five others. Into the stretch, as the field put in their final runs, the 5-year-old started to pull away more, increasing her advantage to six lengths as she changed leads about a furlong from the finish line. Behind her, Envoutante moved ahead of Antoinette for a beat, but Geroux was able to rally the Godolphin-owned filly back into second. Under the wire, Letruska was five and three-quarters lengths in front, with Antoinette, Envoutante, Point of Honor, Spice Is Nice, and Vault finishing out the field.

After outdueling Monomoy Girl in April's Apple Blossom Stakes at Oaklawn Park and then putting on a show in the Ogden Phipps, Letruska quickly established herself as the best older filly or mare in the country, with her trainer Fausto Gutierrez setting their sights on the Breeders' Cup Distaff to cap off what so far has been a stellar 2021. This win in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis might be a short turnaround for the daughter of Super Saver, but she had no trouble with the nine furlongs, putting on a show for the closing day crowd at Churchill Downs. The victory is also Letruska's second Win and You're In race, her spot in the Breeders' Cup Distaff starting gate at Del Mar on Nov. 6 guaranteed.

Letruska paid $3.40, $2.80, and $2.10. Antoinette paid $10.60 and $4.40. Envoutante paid $2.40 to show.

The time for the mile and an eighth on a fast Churchill Downs was 1:48.57. This win in the G2 Fleur de Lis is Letruska's fourth win in five starts in 2021. Bred and owned by St. George Stables, the 5-year-old Letruska is by 2010 Grade 1 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver out of Magic Appeal (Successful Appeal). She has 15 wins in 20 lifetime starts, with total career earnings of $1,305,450.

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Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Letruska Made Mexican Racing History With Apple Blossom Win

The brave victory of Letruska (by Super Saver) in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap over champions Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) and Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) brought forward a couple of important issues. First, this result highlighted the excellent form the mare had shown in her early racing, which was in Mexico, and then her continued development here in the States.

A champion in Mexico and now the victor against a pair of champions at Oaklawn, Letruska has emphasized the quality of racing in Mexico, and she is not the only racer from Mexico to show her form in the more northerly part of North America.

Recently, Kukulkan (Point Determined) won 14 races on the trot before finishing unplaced in the 2019 Pegasus behind City of Light. In addition, Kulkulkan won a pair of black-type stakes in the U.S. and was second in a G3 stakes. Jala Jala, another champion in Mexico, ventured to Gulfstream to win the Caribbean Cup, and from two subsequent U.S. starts, was second in the G3 Royal Delta.

Both of those were owned by St. George Stable, which also owns and stands their sire, the Point Given horse Point Determined.

Although bred in Kentucky, Letruska was likewise bred by St. George Stable LLC. That is the nom de course of German Larrea, a man of vast wealth who lives in Mexico City, where he oversees operations of Mexico's train service, as well as copper interests in Mexico and South America.

Larrea is also the leading breeder and owner in Mexico, where he races a stable of top horses. Letruska was one of these, winning each of her six starts at Hipodromo de las Americas. The last two of her races there were the G1 Clasico Esmeralda and Clasico Diamante.

Then the filly was shipped to the States, where she won her first start at Gulfstream in the Copa Invitacional del Caribe Stakes. In her 11 races since, Letruska has won six, including the G3 Shuvee at Saratoga and G3 Rampart at Gulfstream.

The Apple Blossom was the 5-year-old mare's first Grade 1 that is recognized by the International Cataloging Standards, which is the sales industry standard for recognition and uniformity of black type in sales catalogs.

The Cataloguing Standards Committee was formed in 1981 to create a policy and designation for black type in sales cataloging that was implemented in parts over succeeding years. This also was very nearly the apex of the international Thoroughbred market, and the desire to compare racing form and stakes qualifications from country to country was intense because a great deal of money was dependent upon buyers feeling confident that a G1 winner from one country was comparable to a G1 winner from another country.

Representatives of the four member nations (England, France, Ireland, and the U.S.) have also been joined by a member from South America and from Asia, and this committee then makes recommendations to the Society for International Thoroughbred Auctioneers (SITA), which publishes the “cat standards” that determine black-type recognition in catalogs.

The point of all this is to make black type and graded stakes accomplishments as consistent as possible, and the Part I countries that receive full recognition of their graded stakes programs include the four member nations and a dozen more such as Argentina, Australia, and South Africa.

For inclusion in sales catalogs, Part II countries get black-type designation for their graded or group stakes races but the grades are “for information only,” and black type does not apply to their other stakes events in countries such as India, Italy, and Korea. Part III countries do not receive black-type designation for any races, and among those designated Part III is Mexico.

Thoroughbred consultant Tom Thornbury said: “Cataloging is at the center of the industry. It is essential to the sales avenue, and there's worldwide interest in it. This drives the valuation of racehorses and bloodstock, and in Letruska you've found a gem really, a small part of that population of racehorses from Part III countries that has shown she is able to race with the very best.”

In fact, as Frances J. Karon writes in the Who's Hot, Who's Not blog at Werk Thoroughbred Associates, “Letruska is the first Thoroughbred racehorse from Mexico — either bred there, which she wasn't, or raced there — to win an internationally recognized G1 race.”

And there is no more disputing the form of Letruska's victory than quibbling with the grade; it's a supremely legitimate G1. Not only did the mare win the Apple Blossom against exceptional champions in Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver, but in Letruska's most recent previous race, she finished second by head to Shedaresthedevil (Daredevil), winner of the 2020 Kentucky Oaks over no less than 2020 Eclipse champion filly sprinter Gamine and 2020 Eclipse champion 3-year-old filly Swiss Skydiver.

That's serious form.

Letruska has now won 13 of her 18 starts and more than $1.1 million. That's a handsome advance over the $100,000 that St. George Stable paid to acquire Magic Appeal, a stakes-placed daughter of Successful Appeal, at the 2015 Keeneland November sale. At the time, Magic Appeal was in foal to Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver and carrying Letruska.

Foaled on May 9 the following year, Letruska was the fifth foal from her dam and the third earner of black type. At the time of sale, however, none of those horses were on the dam's page. Her second foal, the Tiznow daughter American Doll, finished second in a stakes at Parx in 2016, and Magic Appeal's fourth foal, a yearling at the time of her sale, was Trigger Warning (Candy Ride).

Trigger Warning won a pair of stakes and was third in both the G1 Pennsylvania Derby and the G3 Ohio Derby, earning more than a half-million.

Magic Appeal has a 2-year-old colt named Ocotzingo (Hard Spun), a yearling colt by Arrogate, and is in foal to leading sire Malibu Moon for 2021.

Magic Appeal was the second-best racer by her dam, stakes winner Call Her Magic (Caller I.D.), and the best was full brother J.P.'s Gusto, winner of the G1 Del Mar Futurity and second in both the G1 Norfolk and Hollywood Futurity.

This family has plenty of quality, but Magic Appeal and her daughter Letruska have now added a footnote to history with their Grade 1 success at Oaklawn Park.

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