Six-year-old gelding Mucho Del Oro has made front running an expected feature of his races. So despite leaving the Santa Anita Park gate as the seventh choice in the Daytona Stakes (G3T) May 26, that he put together a gate-to-wire win should come as no surprise.
“We clearly see this horse has a pattern, he wants to go to the lead, and continue on with that,” said jockey Kyle Frey. “I was just trying to get easier fractions; didn’t get that but it still worked out.”
The son of Mucho Macho Man moved quickly to get to the front and didn’t appear to labor in maintaining his position. And as the field crossed the dirt and headed down the stretch, Mucho Del Oro began to widen his lead to four lengths before a furious, but late rally by First Peace closed that margin to half a length.
He stopped the clock in 1:11.37 with fractional times of :21.87, :43.54, and 1:05.41.
Trainer Doug O’Neill’s racing manager Steve Rothblum said, “My concern was in crossing the dirt because he scotched at it before. So when he hit the dirt full stride and powered off of it, it was a really good feeling.”
Owned by Purple Rein Racing, Mucho Del Oro improved to 10-2-0 from 19 starts. He is 2-1-0 from four starts this year.
Almendares was third and Johnny Podres fourth. A $2 win bet paid $24.80.
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