Apple Blossom Handicap

St George Stables' Letruska (Super Saver) completed an ascent from the humblest of humble beginnings to the highest of highs in the Thoroughbred game, fighting back willingly inside of multiple Eclipse Award winner and two-time GI Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) to take Saturday's $1-million GI Apple Blossom H. by half a head. Reigning 3-year-old champion Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) couldn't go with the top two late and settled for third. The contrarians were out in force all across social media since the Apple Blossom was drawn Tuesday, reasoning...

Well, I guess even Clement L. Hirsch might have had to scratch his head once or twice, if he were still around, to help confront the challenges facing Santa Anita over the past year or so. But there's no doubt that we could all, in the present crisis, usefully emulate the spirit of altruistic dynamism by which he sustained Californian racing in his own time. In 1969, Hirsch and his partners began a game-changing, not-for-profit enterprise at the Oak Tree Racing Association and established a similar regime at the Del...

Clint and Lance Gasaway, Madaket Stables and Wonder Stables' Wells Bayou (Lookin at Lucky), most recently winner of the GII Louisiana Derby, continued training towards a potential start in the May 2 GI Arkansas Derby with a five-furlong work in 1:00.40 (9/17) at Oaklawn Park Sunday. Wells Bayou, on the outside during his drill with maiden stablemate Wild Union (Bayern), was credited with splits of :24.40 for his opening quarter-mile, :36.80 for three furlongs, :48.40 for a half-mile and galloping out six furlongs in 1:12.40 and seven furlongs in 1:26.40....