Macho Music Sheds Blinkers for Saturday’s Mucho Macho Man
At 10h47, on January 4, 2025 • By Gulfstream
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.
