ANTICIPATION was high before last Saturday’s Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap in Oaklawn Park as two of the top females in the US took each other on for the $1 million prize. The race gave us the promised battle royal, but the two participants were not as expected.

In a six-horse field, Irad Ortiz Jr. wasted no time on the third betting choice Letruska. The dual Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl chased outside her, with last year’s top three-year-old filly Swiss Skydiver along the inside in second.