HOT SPRINGS - The $600,000 Grade I Apple Blossom Handicap for older fillies and mares today at Oaklawn Park is short on quantity but long on quality.

Only five horses are entered, but three are Grade I winners, including defending champion On Fire Baby.

“That’s a tough race,” Anita Cauley, On Fire Baby’s owner/breeder, said Thursday morning. “For only five, it is, wow!”

The Apple Blossom also lured multiple Grade I winner Close Hatches, a finalist for an Eclipse Award as the country’s champion 3-year-old filly last year, and Let Faith Arise, who won the $350,000 Grade I Santa Margarita Stakes on March 15 at Santa Anita near Los Angeles in her last start.

Close Hatches is the 3-5 program favorite.

Completing the field for the 1 1/16-mile Apple Blossom are multiple graded stakes winner Rose to Gold and Stanwyck.

Rose to Gold won the $400,000 Grade III Fantasy Stakes last year at Oaklawn and will surpass $1 million career earnings with a top-three finish today.

Stanwyck ran third in the Santa Margarita and is trained by John Shirreffs, who won the 2008 and 2010 Apple Blossom with Zenyatta.

Probable post time for the Apple Blossom, the 10th of 11 races, is 6:12 p.m.

The Apple Blossom is a rematch of the $200,000 Grade II Azeri Stakes on March 15.

Close Hatches, in her first start since finishing second in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita, used a rail draw and sharp break to control the pace from the start en route to a 1¼ -length victory.

On Fire Baby finished fourth, beaten 2¼ lengths, in her first start since running11th in the $500,000 Grade I Spinster Stakes on Oct. 6 at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.

Gary “Red Dog” Hartlage saddled On Fire Baby to win the 2013 Apple Blossom off a near-11-month layoff, the trainer’s biggest career victory.

On Fire Baby missed 18 days of training leading up to the Azeri because of severe winter weather, but should be much fitter today, Hartlage said.

On Fire Baby is scheduled to break from post 4 under regular rider Joe Johnson. Close Hatches will break from the rail again today under Joel Rosario. Close Hatches was assigned top weight of 121 pounds, 6 more than On Fire Baby.

“I feel maybe a little more confident than last time, simply because we got to train,” Cauley said. “She’s feeling fabulous. Joe’s really happy, so that makes me happy.”

Both Close Hatches and On Fire Baby have done their best work on the front end, which should make the break even more important today.

“Any time you run in a Grade I, it’s tough,” Hartlage said. “If you can get one every now and then, it’s great. I’ve had one, and I would like to get two.”

Sports, Pages 25 on 04/11/2014