Apple Blossom Handicap

Grade I race
Apple Blossom Handicap
Location	Oaklawn Park Hot Springs, Arkansas
Inaugurated	1958
Race type	Thoroughbred - Flat racing
Website	Oaklawn Jockey Club, Inc.
Race information
Distance	1 1/16 miles (8.5 furlongs)
Track	Dirt, left-handed
Qualification	Fillies / Mares Four-years-old & up
Weight	Handicap
Purse	$500,000

The Apple Blossom Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race for fillies and mares age three and up run each year in early April during the Racing Festival of the South at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The Grade I race is open to Fillies and Mares, Four-Years-Old and Up. A premier event for distaffers in the Spring, it is run over a distance of one and one-sixteenth miles on the dirt and currently offers a purse of $500,000.

First run in 1958, the Apple Blossom Handicap was held again in 1963 and then resumed as an annual event in 1968. Until 1973 it was run as a handicap purse but grew to become a Graded stakes race. Over the years it has been run at various distances:

• 8.5 furlongs : 1958, 1980 to present
• 6 furlongs : 1963, 1968-1974
• 8.32 furlongs : 1975-1979

Records

Speed record: (at current distance of 8.5 furlongs)

• 1:40.29 - Heatherten (1984) (New race and track record)

Most wins:

• 3 - Azeri (2002, 2003, 2004)

Most wins by a jockey:

• 5 - Mike E. Smith (1994, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008)
• 4 - Chris McCarron (1986, 1992, 1993, 1996)

Most wins by a trainer:

• 3 - Neil D. Drysdale (1977, 1981, 1990)
• 3 - D. Wayne Lukas (1983, 1987, 2004)
• 3 - William I. Mott (1984, 1985, 1998)
• 3 - Ron McAnally (1989, 1992, 1993)

Most wins by an owner:

• 4 - Allen E. Paulson and/or his Living trust (1998, 2002, 2003, 2004)

Winners of the Apple Blossom Handicap

* In 1968 Big Tom won the race but was disqualified.