miles. The purse for the event had risen substantially to over $200,000 by 1981 and with the best female competitors entering the event the status of the race had been set at Grade I. The list of champions who had won the event in the 20th century was impressive, includes: Susan's Girl, Canadian champion Northernette, Track Robbery, North Sider, Argentine bred Bayakoa, Paseana from Argentina who won the event twice and was third as an eight-year-old in 1995 to the 1994 US Three-Year-Old Champion filly Heavenly Prize, Escena and Banshee Breeze. In the 2000s Allen E. Paulson's Champion mare Azeri won the event for a record three times becoming the US Horse of the Year of 2002, and the US Champion Older Female Horse three years running: 2002, 2003, and 2004. In her honor Oaklawn Park in 2005 renamed the Oaklawn Breeders' Cup Stakes to the Azeri Stakes. The champion mare Zenyatta won the event twice (2008, 2010) during her phenomenal nineteen race winning streak. In 2010 Oaklawn Park president Charles J. Cella was negotiating with the owners of the two top females in U.S. racing in 2009, Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta to have a purse of $5 million if both horses were to start. However, the day after a loss by Rachel Alexandra in the New Orleans Ladies at the Fair Grounds her connections announced that she would not run in the Apple Blossom. The 2019 winner Midnight Bisou continued winning four more events before finishing second in the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Santa Anita Park. Nonetheless, her record during the year was strong enough to have her crowned US Champion Older Female Horse for the year. The prize money of the event was scheduled to increase from $750,000 to $1,000,000 in 2020 but was reduced to $600,000 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States reducing fan attendance. In 2021, the purse was increased to $1,000,000 to attract champions Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver. Records Speed record: miles – 1:40.29 Heatherten (1984) (New race and track record) 1 mile and 70 yards – 1:40.60 Summertime Promise (1976) Margins: lengths – By Land by Sea (1988) Most wins: 3 – Azeri (2002, 2003, 2004) Most wins by a jockey: 7 – Mike E. Smith (1994, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2019) Most wins by a trainer: 4 – William I. Mott (1984, 1985, 1998, 2014) Most wins by