Macho Music Sheds Blinkers for Saturday’s Mucho Macho Man

Grade 3 Winner Hades in Florida to Prepare for 4-Year-Old Season
Barboza Nominates Secret Chat, Great Venezuela for Jan. 11 Sunshine Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL - Mark Fletcher Taylor, trainer Rohan Crichton and Daniel Walters’ Macho Music will have a change of equipment when he returns home and stretches out beyond a sprint for the first time in Saturday’s $165,000 Mucho Macho Man at Gulfstream Park.

The one-mile Mucho Macho Man for newly turned 3-year-olds is the first step on Gulfstream’s road to the $1 million Florida Derby (G1) March 29.

Macho Music, a bay son of Maclean’s Music out of the Tapit mare Southern Girl, made his first two starts at Gulfstream including a 9 ½-length maiden special weight romp second time out sprinting 5 ½ furlongs against fellow Florida-breds.

He registered a second straight front-running triumph, this one by 4 ½ lengths, in an open six-furlong optional claiming allowance Oct. 5 at Keeneland, where he returned three weeks later as the favorite in the Bowman’s Mill. He led from the gate to mid-stretch but jumped a shadow while racing on his left lead and wound up fourth.

“That race at Keeneland, obviously we went there with huge expectations because of how he won the allowance the race before,” Crichton said. “Just like when he won the allowance race, he wouldn’t take his eye off the rail. The rail throws a shadow, and he was looking at it all the way to the wire. [Jockey] Luis Saez said he had run, but all he’s doing is looking at the shadow.”

Macho Music will race without blinkers for the first time in the Mucho Macho Man, where Jose Ortiz replaces Saez in the irons. Saez, aboard three of the Mucho Macho Man contenders in their last start, settled on last-out maiden winner Guns Loaded for trainer Jose D’Angelo.

“I usually don’t breeze much in blinkers but when we’ve got a spot we usually go with the race equipment. This time we took them off so the last couple breezes were without blinkers,” Crichton said. “Luis Saez breezed him last week and he said, ‘I don’t know what’s happening with him, but he’s he’s absolutely relaxed.

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” he added. “I have no clue about whether or not he’s going to be able to get the distance, but he’s out of a Tapit mare so we hope that helps him to get the extra two furlongs,” he added. “We’ll know on Saturday. At least it’s a one-turn mile and he’s at home, so he’s very familiar with his surroundings.”

Grade 3 Winner Hades in Florida to Prepare for 4-Year-Old Season

Coming off a sophomore campaign that had him on the early Triple Crown trail and wound up seeing him race eight times at six different venues in the East and Midwest, Grade 3 winner Hades is back in Florida to begin preparations for his 4-year-old season.

D. J. Stable and Robert Cotran’s Hades, a Florida-bred son of Awesome Slew, is expected to rejoin trainer Joe Orseno at Gulfstream Park later this month following a short break after his ninth-place finish in the Nov. 9 River City (G3) at Churchill Downs.

“He’s in central Florida right now but he’ll be coming to Joe’s barn at Gulfstream probably by the 15th of January,” D. J. Stable racing manager Jonathan Green said. “Joe is very excited about having him back.

“Robert Cotran, is an excellent partner and we all agreed that giving the horse eight or 10 weeks off at the end of 2024 was the right way to go and have him ready to go guns blazing in 2025,” he added. “My guess is that he’ll be running sometime in February or March during the Championship Meet and hopefully go to Keeneland and then see where we’re at.”

Hades won each of his first three starts, twice at 2 and the Holy Bull (G3) last February at Gulfstream over champion Fierceness in his 3-year-old opener. He hasn’t won since, finishing fifth in the Florida Derby (G1) and placing in four straight stakes from mid-June to late September including runner-up finishes in the Dwyer (G3) at Aqueduct and Bourbon Flight at Churchill.

“Hades had a really difficult campaign in the sense that he ran at so many different racetracks, so many different time zones. He shipped everywhere and ran to the best of his ability at every dance,” Green said. “We wanted to give him a little bit of time off. We felt that he had campaigned himself to the Nth degree and we just wanted him to come back for his 2025 campaign and really just let him develop and gain some weight and some muscle and not be in the grind of training. He really was in the grind for over a year.”

Upcoming stakes for 4-year-olds and up on dirt during the Championship Meet include the six-furlong Gulfstream Park Sprint Feb. 22, $200,000 Gulfstream Park Mile (G2) March 1, and $150,000 Ghostzapper (G3) going 1 1/16 miles and $150,000 Sir Shackleton sprinting seven furlongs March 29.

“It’s exciting because not only is he a great horse and we have a great partner in Robert with us on the horse, I’ve known Joe Orseno for over 30 years and Joe is a trusted friend and advisor and he does a great job with the horses,” Green said. “I couldn’t be happier that he’s campaigning under Joe’s watchful eye and, hopefully, he’ll be another big horse for Joe in the coming year.”

Barboza Nominates Secret Chat, Great Venezuela for Jan. 11 Sunshine Stakes

Trainer Victor Barboza Jr. could be saddling favorites Saturday, Jan. 11 for the Sunshine Stakes with Secret Chat and Great Venezuela.

Secret Chat, fourth earlier this year in the Stonestreet Lexington (G3), has returned from a seven-month layoff to win allowance optional claimers here Nov. 16 and Dec. 20. The 4-year-old son of Union Rags is one of 17 nominated for the $75,000 Sunshine Classic at 1 1/16 mile.

Others nominated for the Classic include K C Chief, second in the Presque Isle, multiple stakes placed Prevent, and 2022 Sunshine Turf winner Lure Him In.

Great Venezuela is one of 11 nominated for the Filly & Mare Turf at one mile. Barboza Jr. has saddled the 4-year-old to four consecutive victories against allowance and starter optional claimers. The daughter of Neolithic was third last year in the Wait a While. Others nominated include Rachels Song, who is 3-2-2 in eight career starts, Princess Bettina, a stakes-winner at Santa Anita Park, and Grade 2 winner Maryquitecontrary, who was seventh Dec. 29 in an overnight handicap.