Great AB due, even with four and no more

One sees enough horse races during a Hot Springs season that fade from memory quicker than cheap speed.

A longer season has moved Oaklawn to add stakes races, even if it results in the Racing Festival of the South, the late Charles J. Cella's brainchild, being left for the historian to unearth.

Come to think of it, does anyone have a list of stakes winners in discontinued events such as the Crabapple, the Magnolia and the Redbud? It would be nice to know such things at times instead of how close a trainer is to 300 career victories.

It is with such admonitions that this Oaklawn historian -- a turf writer at heart, who if he lives to 2024 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his first visit to the track -- asks patience for parties responsible for four horses in the Apple Blossom Handicap.

What we have is a distinctive A-list of contenders Saturday and a couple in the field that might have required arm-twisting from the racing office. A $1 million purse and Grade 1 rating are not enough to guarantee a full field or anything close when dealing with older fillies and mares like G1 winners Secret Oath and Clairiere.

Entries were drawn Sunday, and barring any changes, it will be the smallest Apple Blossom since four went postward in 1990 and Gorgeous, trained by Neil Drysdale and ridden by Eddie Delahousssaye, beat defending champion Bayakoa. Drysdale saddled the first Apple Blossom winner (1980) I covered for this newspaper, Bold 'n Determined denied an Eclipse Award despite a late-season win over Genuine Risk, the first Kentucky Derby-winning filly in 65 years.

The Apple Blossom reached ascendancy in the 1970s and 1980, years before the Breeders' Cup, as a melting pot for female horses from both coasts. Susan's Girl, in her only Oaklawn visit in a 63-race career, won in 1975, nearing $1 million in earnings when even the great ones sang for their supper.

Other Apple Blossom-winning champions in the last century include Northernette, Track Robbery, North Sider, Argentine-bred Bayakoa and Paseana, Escena and Banshee Breeze. Lady's Secret, the Prima Donna winner at Oaklawn in 1995 for Wayne Lukas, finished second to Love Smitten in the 1986 Apple Blossom and was named Horse of the Year after Pat Day brought her home with majesty in the Breeders' Cup Distaff.

Laura de Seroux trained Azeri to consecutive race victories and a record third triumph resulted for Wayne Lukas in 2002 when named Horse of the Year. A three-time Eclipse Award winner as U.S. champion older female, Azeri saw the Oaklawn Breeders' Cup renamed in her behalf.

Then, out of the blue (from the West, actually) came Zenyatta. Upon entering the track on race day in 2008, I was quickly cornered by someone who clocked horses in the morning and told me, "Don't bet on the Apple Blossom until you see Zenyatta on the track." Ginger Punch, a reigning champion, received most pre-race flak but was dwarfed when Big Mama, as Zenyatta became called, emerged from the paddock to claim Oaklawn as a home away from home. Perhaps only Smarty Jones was loved more by Oaklawn fans, her winning streak reaching 19 races before beaten a head by Blame in defense of the BC Classic title at Churchill Downs in 2010.

Cella, ever the showman, wanted to bring together 2009 HOY Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta in the next Apple Blossom for a $5 million purse if both were to start. Rachel Alexandra went off form after the greatest season by a 3-year-old filly since ill-fated Ruffian and, following a loss in New Orleans, her people said she would not run in Hot Springs.

Zenyatta, by then showing signs of boredom, spotting too many lengths in certain races (which proved her undoing in the race she lost), overwhelmed a skeleton cast on a glorious April Friday that Big Mama, a diva at heart, symbolically bowed in the winners' circle. I have not experienced a greater thrill in covering Oaklawn races.

Letruska, a Mexican champion, beat American glamour girls Swiss Skydiver (the previous year's Preakness winner) and Shedaresthedevil in the 2021 Apple Blossom, repeating last year.

One caveat before betting on the race Saturday is that both favorites come off the pace, meaning that some rival may find herself on the early lead when that is not her game. The Lukas factor compels this guy to pull for Secret Oath, although Clairiere should finish no worse than second in her third local race. And one thought the Masters aired last weekend? This one is for female horses, one with a spring to the step and not past sassing the opposition.