Trainer Bob Baffert considers Mucho Gusto to be “a much better horse than what you saw” in Sunday’s Sunland Derby (G3) — and that belief could earn him another shot at qualifying for the 2019 Kentucky Derby.
Baffert said the multiple Grade 3-winning son of Mucho Macho Man is under consideration for Keeneland’s Grade 3, $200,000 Lexington Stakes on April 13, the final day for points qualifiers.
While Mucho Gusto’s third in the Sunland Derby boosted him to 16th on the current Derby leaderboard, his 24 points are not on pace to remain in the Top 20 with most major preps still left to run. The Lexington awards points on a 20-8-4-2 scale to its first four finishers, and the winner’s share could certainly send him on to Churchill Downs.
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Campaigned by Michael Lund Petersen, Mucho Gusto “sort of ran the same race as he did in the Los Alamitos Futurity,” Baffert said, “where he pressed the pace and pressed the pace.”
Setting the fractions, the colt went in 22.76 and 45.63 for the opening splits of the 1 1/8-mile race, locking up along the rail in a speed duel with the local stakes winner Hustle Up. Mucho Gusto eventually faded to finish third, six lengths behind the dueling Cutting Humor and Anothertwistafate. Hustle Up dropped to seventh.
“If he’d have been on the outside, I think he could have run a better race — been in a spot where the winner was, sitting four to five lengths off and finish up,” Baffert said of Mucho Gusto.
“…The mile and an eighth, it’s all about the pace. We’re just going to have to regroup here.”
The Lexington runs at 1 1/16 miles. Last year, its winner, My Boy Jack, used a victory there to solidify his standing in the Derby Top 20. Baffert won the 2016 Lexington with Collected, who from there pointed to the Preakness Stakes.
The Hall of Fame trainer confirmed his other Derby hopefuls are all on track for their final preps — but Baffert laughed, calling these “stressful times.”
Game Winner, narrowly defeated by Omaha Beach in the second division of the March 16 Rebel Stakes, returned to the work tab Tuesday with a half-mile breeze. He’s targeting the April 6 Santa Anita Derby (G1).
“The way he worked, everybody said he looked good,” said Baffert, who’s in Florida for Gulfstream Park’s Wednesday sale of 2-year-olds. “I saw the video, and he came out of the race well.”
Roadster, a come-backing March 1 allowance winner, is also gearing up for the Santa Anita Derby. He glided through six furlongs Tuesday in 1:14.
“Drayden (Van Dyke) worked him and said he looked good,” Baffert reported. “He’s an interesting horse there. He’s got a lot of talent.”
Van Dyke will cede the mount next time to Jose Ortiz on the Arkansas Derby (G1) contender Improbable, who “looks good,” Baffert said, exiting a neck defeat in the Rebel’s first flight.
Game Winner is likely already in the Kentucky Derby on points; Improbable needs only to hit the board; and Roadster will have to win or place in the Santa Anita Derby to earn his trip.