Affluent, Solis to Team Again for Apple Blossom Date Posted:
3/20/2003 8:12:01 PM  Alex Solis, who won the Santa Monica
Handicap (gr. I) aboard Affluent but opted to get off of her to
ride Got Koko in the Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap (gr.
I), will be back aboard the daughter of Affirmed when she meets
Horse of the Year Azeri in the April 5 Apple Blossom Handicap
(gr. I) at Oaklawn Park.  Affluent, who scratched from the Santa
Margarita due to a slight fever, worked five furlongs on Santa
Anita's fast main track Thursday in 1:00.60, breezing, with
Solis up.  "She's not a good work horse," Hall of Fame trainer
Ron McAnally said, "but she went out (six furlongs) in 1:14."
Azeri will be making her first start since her dominating
victory in the Breeders' Cup Distaff last Oct. 26, but McAnally
expects his rival to turn in her usual solid performance despite
the layoff of more than five months.  "She'll run good fresh,"
McAnally said. "Some horses run good fresh, others don't. She
happens to be one that w