BAFFERT’S MUCHO GUSTO ALL BUSINESS IN WINNING GRADE III ROBERT B. LEWIS STAKES

By Mike Willman —-

Michael L. Petersen’s Mucho Gusto and jockey Joseph Talamo win the Grade III, $150,000 Robert B. Lewis Stakes, Saturday, February 2, 2019 at Santa Anita Park, Arcadia CA.
© BENOIT PHOTO

MUCHO GUSTO
BENOIT PHOTO

BAFFERT’S MUCHO GUSTO ALL BUSINESS IN WINNING GRADE III, $150,000 ROBERT B. LEWIS STAKES BY 4 ¾ LENGTHS; RIDDEN BY TALAMO, DERBY HOPEFUL GETS 1 1/16 MILES OVER SLOPPY TRACK IN 1:41.81
WINNER BY MUCHO MACHO MAN PICKS UP 10 KENTUCKY DERBY QUALIFYING POINTS

ARCADIA, Calif. (Feb. 2, 2019)—Favored Mucho Gusto was all business on Saturday at Santa Anita, as he rated kindly and exploded the final eighth of a mile to take the Grade III, $150,000 Robert B. Lewis Stakes by 4 ¾ lengths under Joe Talamo. Trained by Bob Baffert, the chestnut colt by Mucho Macho Man got a mile and one sixteenth over a sloppy track in 1:41.81.

A comfortable third into and around the Club House turn, Mucho Gusto was well within himself as he stalked Magnificent McCool while second heading to the far turn. Five sixteenths of a mile from home, he took command and accelerated through the lane like a top Derby prospect to win with his ears pricked.

“Every race, he’s getting better and better,” said Talamo, who’s ridden him in all four of his starts. “He settled today like he’s been doing this a hundred times…He galloped out real strong. I don’t think distance is going to be any problem. At the three eighths (pole), I was pretty confident. He’s a 3-year-old, but he feels like an older horse.”

Idle since running second to his highly regarded stablemate Improbable in the Grade I Los Alamitos Futurity Dec. 8, Mucho Gusto, who is out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Itsagiantcauseway, was off at 3-5 in a field of five sophomores and paid $3.20, $2.20 and $2.10.

Owned by Michael Lund Petersen, Mucho Gusto, who was purchased for $625,000 at a 2-year-old in training sale this past May, picked up $90,000 for the win, hiking his earnings to $234,000. He now has three wins from four starts and he picked up 10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points as well.

“He got to sit off the pace, which was good,” said Baffert. “They have to learn to do that, and I was really happy with Joe. He rode him with a lot of confidence today, like he was a good horse and he (Talamo) was on his own. I didn’t give him any instructions…He’s a good horse. He’s a fighter, too. If they’d have hooked him, he likes to fight.

“This is the time of the year when you want to start getting excited about something…I want to run him in spots where he’s going to be very competitive, and we have those other horses, so it depends on what the other horses are doing. Right now, I’m going to nominate my horses everywhere and whoever’s doing great that week runs in that race…Let the games begin.”

Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer and ridden by Mike Smith, Gunmetal Gray, a deep closer, had his work cut out for him in the short field. With what developed into a reasonable early pace, he rallied well from last to catch Easy Shot late, finishing second by a half length.

A winner of the Grade III Sham Stakes here on Jan. 5, he was the second choice at 8-5 and paid $2.40 and $2.10.

Ridden by Rafael Bejarano, the Keith Desormeaux-trained Easy Shot was off at 12-1 and paid $2.60 to show while finishing 2 ¼ lengths clear of Magnificent Cool.

Fractions on the race were 23.67, 46.55, 1:10.51 and 1:35.57.

The second, third and fourth place finishers picked up four, two and one Kentucky Derby qualifying point(s) each.

ROBERT B. LEWIS STAKES(GIII) QUOTES, $150,000

JOE TALAMO, MUCHO GUSTO, WINNER: “Every race, he getting better and better. I’m glad I’ve been working him, because he’s worked better, too. He settled today like he’s been doing this a hundred times…He galloped out real strong. I don’t think distance is going to be any problem. At the three eighths (pole), I was pretty confident. He’s a 3-year-old, but he feels like an older horse. He’s got a great mind.”
“Those first two horses hopped off there pretty quick so I didn’t want to go head and head with speed there; he’s such a cool horse, he settled so nice, Bob’s done a great job with him in the morning like with a lot of horses. I just kinda rode him like he worked him in the morning, he absolutely loved the mud today.”

MIKE SMITH, GUNMETAL GRAY, SECOND: “He ran okay. He was climbing a lot. He had a lot to (overcome).

TRAINER QUOTES

BOB BAFFERT, MUCHO GUSTO, WINNER: “It was good. He got to sit off the pace, which was good. They have to learn to do that, and I was really happy with Joe (Talamo) He rode him with a lot of confidence today, like he was a good horse, and he (Joe) was on his own. I didn’t give him any instructions.
“He said, ‘What should I do?’ I said, ‘You need to WIN THIS RACE. That’s what you need to do.’ When we bought him, he worked in the slop at Timonium and he just smoked over it . . . but he’s a good horse. He’s a fighter, too. If they’d have hooked him, he likes to fight. This is the time of the year when you want to start getting excited about something (on the Triple Crown trail). We’re still dreaming in Technicolor, but they have to start performing and they have to move forward from here, but it’s a fun position to be in.
“I want to run him in spots where he’s going to be very competitive, and we have those other horses, so it depends on what the other horses are doing. Right now I’m going to nominate my horses everywhere and whoever’s doing great that week runs in that race . . . Let the games begin.
“I know that Joe (Talamo) rode the horse with a lot of confidence today, and we talked about after the Los Alamitos (12/8/18 where he came in second to Improbable), I told him to get to the next level he has to learn to relax, so today was a good day to get him back off those horses, he rode him like he’s a good horse and he responded like a good horse.
“We’re just happy that the horse has been doing well and Michael (owner Petersen) here he got into the business, we had some more spirit, we had some luck there and we’d been trying to get to the Derby, we had another good horse that needed some time off so this was actually the second stringer here but he’s a good horse.”

OWNER QUOTES

MICHAEL LUND PETERSEN, MUCHO GUSTO, WINNER: I just like standing on the other side of the bundle you know giving them carrots instead. It’s an amazing experience that’s why I own horses to see them race and hopefully once in a while we can get a win in.
“I texted Bob to see if I should come for the race and he was very confident. That’s pretty good.”

NOTES: The winning horse receives 10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, the runner-up four, the third-place finisher two and the fourth, one. The winning owner is Michael Lund Petersen.

About Santa Anita Park
Santa Anita Park is a Stronach Group company, North America’s leading Thoroughbred racetrack owner/operator. The Stronach Group racetracks include Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park & Casino, Golden Gate Fields, Portland Meadows, Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course, home of the world-famous Preakness. The company owns and operates the Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida, and is one of North America’s top race horse breeders through its award-winning Adena Springs operation The Stronach Group is one of the world’s largest suppliers of pari-mutuel wagering systems, technologies and services. Its companies include AmTote, a global leader in wagering technology; Xpressbet, an Internet and telephone account wagering service; and Monarch Content Management, which acts as a simulcast purchase and sales agent of horseracing content for numerous North American racetracks and wagering outlets. The Stronach Group is North America’s premier supplier of virtual online horseracing games, as well as a leading producer of social media content for the horseracing industry.