When it comes to champions going head to head, the G1 Apple Blossom Handicap has a mighty pedigree. And next Saturday’s running of the Oaklawn Park feature - featuring a mouthwatering clash between Breeders’ Cup Distaff scorer Monomoy Girl and Preakness winner Swiss Skydiver - promises to be right up there with some of the finest editions from the past.
The race is also notable for a great match-up that never happened: The much anticipated clash between Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra, but more of that later. The Apple Blossom has been a regular campaign spot for proven and aspiring champions over the years, and has produced dreams match-ups like these:
Havre de Grace vs Switch (2011)
In 2010, Blind Luck was named Champion Three-Year Old Filly over rival Havre de Grace. The two sophomores met four times with Blind Luck winning the Delaware Oaks, the Alabama Stakes and placing behind Unrivaled Belle, and ahead of Havre de Grace in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Havre de Grace turned the tables, defeating Blind Luck in the G1 Cotillion Stakes.
Blind Luck showed up for the G2 Azeri Stakes and was defeated by 3¼ lengths, which eliminated a chance for a rematch in the Apple Blossom. However, another California shipper would give Larry Jones’s charge all she could handle in the 2010 edition of the race - multiple G1 winner Switch, trained by John Sadler.
When the gate opened, Absinthe Minded shot to the lead and Switch and Havre de Grace sat a couple of lengths behind. Coming into the stretch, Switch took the lead by a head and started pulling away. But Havre de Grace, confidently handled by Ramon Dominguez,swept by to win by threequarters of a length.
Havre de Grace would go on to become the third consecutive female to be Horse of the Year (after Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta), the first time this ever had occurred.
Zenyatta vs Ginger Punch (2008)
Many forget in 2008 that Zenyatta’s first G1 appearance was not in her home state of California, but rather at Oaklawn Park in the Apple Blossom, where she took on defending distaff champion Ginger Punch.
Zenyatta won the race by one of her greatest margins - 4½ lengths - over Graded stakes winner Brownie Points and next Ginger Punch. Some may suggest that Ginger Punch was past her prime, but she would go on to win three G1s that year, including the Sunshine Millions Distaff Stakes, the G2 Louisville Stakes, the G1 Ogden Phipps Stakes, the G1 Go For Wand Stakes, and the G1 Personal Ensign Stakes. The previous year, this resume would be enough to earn her Champion Older Female. This was not to be, though, as Zenyatta defeated her for the second time in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Azeri vs Take Charge Lady (2003)
Defending Horse of the Year Azeri took on Take Charge Lady and five others at Oaklawn. The Kenny McPeek filly took control early, leading the field into the first turn. Azeri settled into the middle of the pack about three lengths from the leader through mild early fractions.
The pace quickened for the third quarter as Azeri swept by Mandy’s Gold and Bien Nicole. Azeri closed to within half a length before Shane Sellers shook the reins, encouraging Take Charge Lady to extend her lead by a length. Azeri kept closing and won by a short head.
Oaklawn Park designates the race as one of the greatest in its history.
Since its creation in 1958, the Apple Blossom has been won by:
- Six Hall of Famers
- Three Horses of the Year
- Fourteen distaff champions (11 different horses)
- Four defending three-year old champions
The race that never was
In 2010, 2009 U.S. Horse of the Year and Three-Year Old Female Champion Rachel Alexandra and 2009 Horse of the Year runner-up and Champion Older Female Zenyatta were scheduled to meet in the Apple Blossom. The purse would be increased to $5 million if the two champions made the gate. It never happened.
Zenyatta won the G1 Santa Margarita in preparation for the race and Rachel Alexandra’s connections determined after her loss by threequarters of a length in the newly created New Orleans Ladies Stakes to Zenyatta’s stablemate, Zardana, that the daughter of Medaglia D’Oro needed more time before her next start.
Fans hoped that a meeting between the two stars might still take place in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
As a prelude, the scene was Saratoga, where the previous year Steve Asmussen’s charge had celebrated her most impressive victory when she became the first and only 3-year old filly to win the G1 Woodward Stakes. This time, it was the G1 Personal Ensign Stakes at ten furlongs, the Breeders’ Cup Classic distance, named for Ogden Phipps’ champion mare, where she was extolled by street banners to “run like a girl”.
Rachel Alexandra was facing a balanced field, including G1 winner Life At Ten, who had just won the ten-furlong G2 Delaware Handicap, and Graded stakes winner Miss Singhsix and two G1 paced fillies, Persistently and Classofsixtythree. Fittingly, it would be Rachel Alexandra’s runner-up finish to Phipps Stable entrant Persistently that would defeat her. It was to be Rachel Alexandra’s swansong, as almost exactly a month later owner Jess Jackson announced her retirement.
The 2021 showdown
Monomoy Girl, after winning five G1s in 2018, including the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, was crowned Champion Three-Year Old Female in 2018. In 2019, she spent the year recovering from colic surgery for 2020 Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox. The daughter of Tapizar out of Henny Hughes mare Drumette returned, not missing a beat, in 2020, going undefeated in four starts, winning an allowance race, the G2 Ruffian Stakes, G1 La Troienne Stakes and repeating in the BC Distaff to win the Champion Older Female Award in 2020.
She was also purchased from Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, The Elkstone Group and Bethlehem Stables at the Keeneland November sale by Spendthrift Farm and added Myracehorse.com and Madaket Stables as owners.
One of Monomoy Girl’s challengers in the Distaff was Swiss Skydiver, who had her own coast-to-coast championship season. Her record may not instantly appear remarkable at 10-5-2-1, but what she accomplished was indeed history making.
In July, Peter J Callahan’s filly took on males in the G2 Blue Grass Stakes, finishing second, losing by over three lengths to Art Collector but earning the best finish ever by a filly in the race. The last and only other filly to run in the Blue Grass Stakes was Hyman Friedberg’s homebred Harriet Sue, a daughter of Calumet stallion Bull Lea, who had won the Ashland Stakes 16 days before. That race was held at Churchill Downs because of World War II rationing in which racetracks designated as “suburban plants”, as Keeneland was, were asked not to hold races to conserve on rubber.
Harriet Sue finished fifth to Skytracer and returned to competition against fillies. As favorite, she finished second in the Kentucky Oaks to Canina.
In 1948, two-time champion and future Hall of Famer Bewitch was scratched from the Blue Grass Stakes.
Swiss Skydiver won the G1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga for trainer Kenny McPeek and finished second in the Kentucky Oaks to Shedaresthedevil only three weeks later at Churchill Downs.
She then took on males again in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, which had been scheduled outside May for the first time since World War II.
She is the daughter of speedster Daredevil out of Johannesburg mare Expo Gold, who also happens to be a granddaughter of Kentucky Derby winner Strike The Gold. Robby Albarado was in the saddle for the first time for the Preakness, given that regular rider Tyler Gaffalione had made commitments to ride at Keeneland’s meet-opening weekend before McPeek had committed to run in the Preakness. Albarado was a shrewd choice, having piloted 2007 and 2008 Horse of the Year Curlin to his 2007 Preakness Stakes win in the third fastest time for the race behind Secretariat, Tanks Prospect and Louis Quatorze in 1:53.46.
Swiss Skydiver entered the gate against ten others, including Art Collector, tied for third on the Morning Line. She was only the sixth betting choice come post time. The track was dry and fast and without fans for the first time.
Albarado broke well and she settled into fifth along the rail early, behind Pneumatic and Art Collector while stablemates Authentic, the Kentucky Derby winner, and Thousand Words battled on the front end three lengths ahead of her. The fractions did not appear too demanding up front, and, as the horses approached the second turn, Albarado expertly guided Swiss Skydiver inside Authentic, who had dispatched Thousand Words and was leading the pack off the rail.
John Velazquez on Authentic tried to reclaim the lead going down the stretch, but at every call Swiss Skydiver had the lead. In the end, she won by a short neck, becoming the sixth filly to win the second leg of the Triple Crown.
Momentous Preakness victory
As the dust settled, the victory became even more momentous as the final time showed 1:53.28, the second fastest edition of the Preakness since its inaugural running in 1873 - behind only Secretariat. She also became the only filly ever to defeat in the same year the subsequent Breeders’ Cup Classic winner (Authentic). Racing ten times, at nine different race tracks in seven different states just added to her list of 2020 superlatives.
Some may say they are less than excited about Saturday’s race given that Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver have already met, as noted, in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
However, in Swiss Skydiver’s defense, she broke poorly and came out of that race with an injury. Her seventh-place finish, the worst of her career, gave credence to the notion that the injury affected her performance.
After further examination, McPeek noted that the stumble at the start of the Distaff left his filly in worse condition than he had hoped. He tweeted a picture that showed the back of one of her pasterns with areas where skin and hair had been scraped off, most likely when she had difficulty leaving the gate.
As a result, she was given some downtime to recover at McPeek’s Magdalena Farm in Lexington.
However, after her rousing victory in the G1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita on March 13, Swiss Skydiver is in good form. She notched a 101 Beyer speed figure, winning by 2¾ lengths. Monomoy Girl began her campaign in a similar fashion a couple weeks before after a delay at Oaklawn Park because of inclement weather postponed racing there. She won the 8½-furlong G3 Bayakoa Stakes by two lengths, earning a 96 Beyer.
These two females are close to top form and this year’s Apple Blossom promises to be one of its most special editions.
Todd Sidor, an attorney by trade, has helped produce equine law seminars, and has been a member of racing partnerships for a number of years. His more-than-two-decades’ passion and respect for the sport of horseracing will always make him, first and foremost, a racing enthusiast with a penchant for racing history.