SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – According to the calculations of coach Fausto Gutierrez, having a clunker every now and then certainly does not discourage the champion Letruska (Super Saver’s sparkling achievement series).
When last seen in competition, the 6-year-old mare was last running as 3rd-5th favorite in GI Ogden Phipps S. June 11th at Belmont Park. As usual, she set her pace, but that afternoon couldn’t finish and was overtaken by four others in the field. Gutierrez said that Letruska wasn’t me that afternoon, possibly a nervous reaction to shipping from Kentucky.
“She had a bad race in New York, on Belmont Day,” he said. “But I think this is part of the game.”
Letruska returns to Saratoga this week to see if she can win GI Personal Ensign S. for the second year in a row. The two horses have twice won the race: Courtesy in 1967-68 and Nice Joy in 1999-2000. She handled the Personal Ensign challenge in 2021, passing Bonny South (Munnings) is half the length. This was the fourth of five straight-ranked wins that brought her to the Eclipse Award for the senior women’s team. Gutierrez says she looks good to him for the nine-child race.
“She’s been in very good form and I think she’s ready to show it,” he said. “I am very happy with the way she trained and [she] ready to go. “
Letruska’s championship season with six wins and a second in eight games that started with $1.9 million in earnings ended with a distant 10th place in the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff. That day at Del Mar, she entered a speed showdown with Private Mission (Into Mischief) through brutally fast fractions of 21.84, 44.97 and 1:09.70. The Japanese mare Marche Lorraine (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) was the lucky one to benefit and keep Dunbar Road (Quality Sugar) with the nose at 49-1. Private Mission was the only horse Letruska defeated that day.
“With that kind of rhythm or pace for the race, of course, it helps if she’s in the middle,” says Gutierrez, noting that horses that go that fast in a 1/8-mile race are not usually in the controversy at the end.
“When you’re a coach, you see how it starts and you’re just waiting for the fractions,” he said. “When you see :21,:22, you know the race is over for you.”
Letruska begins the 2022 season on February 26 at Gulfstream Park and leads from gate to rope in GIII Royal Delta S. by three lengths. She followed that up with a 1/4 win over Claireriere (Curlin) during GI Apple Blossom H. April 22 at Oaklawn Park. Phipps, which she won easily in 2021, is her next start.
“We need to remember that she had five years running in a row. We have two, three, four, five and now six,” Gutierrez said. “Prior to the Belmont race, she had one of the most spectacular races she had, the second Apple Blossom she won in a row. The big number to me is the second or third fastest time in history for Apple Blossom. And after we had a bad race.”
Gutierrez says he and his crew noticed that she didn’t seem to be herself in the days leading up to Phipps.
“She is a very capricious horse. She is very special,” he said. “And when we got to Belmont, she was [depressed]. Sometimes it’s complicated to scratch a horse like hers. It’s not an excuse, but when you’ve lived with a horse for 5 years straight, you know when it’s not like the horse you know. Something like this happens. I repeat, that is not an excuse. Small part for that race, the quality for the horses to run in these races is high level and she is the winner and the loser in the race. We had a bad start that day. Like when you’re a pitcher in baseball and one day in the second inning you go out. But you won 19 games before that.”
Gutierrez smiles as he uses the analogy in baseball. He was referring to Letruska’s career record of 19 wins in 26 starts.
Since Phipps, Letruska has worked seven times at Churchill Downs. Four of the winds are the fastest of the day at long distances. On Friday, she crossed half a mile in: 48, the third fastest of 107 running that morning.
Gutierrez said that Letruska has gone very well from Kentucky and jockey Gabriel Lagunes, who rode her in training this week, told him she was a different horse than the one he rode in June at the Congregation. Belmont member. Gutierrez said that the purebred St. George Stable is ready for Personal Ensign, which he admits is another daunting task.
“She hasn’t had an easy race in the last two years,” Gutierrez said. “She just ran [in graded stakes] and race where she is the focus. We run with the highest quality horses: Clairiere, Malathaat (Curlin), Search Results (More Even). The one who wants to run in that group is the unruly horse.”
Gutierrez said he liked Letruska’s chance at a $600,000 Personal Ensign. She drew rails in the field of five.
“I have a feeling and awareness that we might see the same Letruska again,” he said. “She has so many people following her and liking her form, that she fights every race.”
