Addition of Mucho Gusto brings expected Travers field to 12

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Bob Baffert will have a horse in the Runhappy Travers after all.

Mucho Gusto, runner-up to Maximum Security in last month’s Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park, worked so well Monday morning at Del Mar that Baffert has elected to put him on a plane Tuesday bound for New York and Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers at Saratoga. Baffert had been pointing Mucho Gusto to the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing on Sept. 21.

Baffert had been pointing Game Winner to the Travers Stakes until last week when the horse came down with a virus following a workout at Del Mar.

Monday, Mucho Gusto worked five furlongs in 59.20 seconds at Del Mar in company with a maiden and galloped out six furlongs in “1:12 and change,” according to Baffert.

“He punched his own ticket,” Baffert said Monday from Southern California. “He’s ready to do something. I said ‘I got to find him a plane’ – there just happens to be one leaving” Tuesday.

Mucho Gusto, a son of Mucho Macho Man, is a four-time Grade 3 stakes winner, with his most recent win coming in the Affirmed at Santa Anita by 2 1/4 lengths on June 16. In the Haskell, Mucho Gusto had a four-wide trip down the backside, headed Maximum Security outside the quarter pole, and ran with him until about the sixteenth pole when Maximum Security edged away to win by 1 1/4 lengths.

“He got beat by the best 3-year-old in the country,” Baffert said.

Asked if Mucho Gusto could get the 1 1/4 miles of the Travers, Baffert said, “We’re going to find out.”

Mucho Gusto will be ridden by Joe Talamo in the Travers.

Mucho Gusto was one of 12 horses expected to be entered Tuesday when post positions were to be drawn at a function at the Adelphi Hotel.

Three other Travers candidates put in workouts Monday morning, including Code of Honor, the official Kentucky Derby runner-up who went four furlongs in 49.49 seconds over the Oklahoma training track with a final quarter of 24.00.

Code of Honor has not run since winning the Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes by 3 1/4 lengths on July 6 at Belmont. Trainer Shug McGaughey skipped the Jim Dandy with Code of Honor, not wanting to run him back in three weeks. Monday’s move was his fifth since moving up to Saratoga for the summer.

“Very exciting work,” McGaughey said. “Since we’ve been up here everything’s gone really good with him. I thought today could have been the best of all of them.”

Laughing Fox, fourth in the Jim Dandy after running fifth in the Preakness, worked a half-mile 50.13, getting his final quarter in 24.40 over the Oklahoma training track.

“The horse is training really well, he’s done well up here,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “I wish the Jim Dandy would have unfolded a little different. I think he’s a horse that will appreciate the mile and a quarter, but the race lacks pace horribly.”

Chess Chief, runner-up to Mr. Money in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby, worked a half-mile in 48.00 on Monday morning at Churchill Downs. Chess Chief, trained by Dallas Stewart, worked in company with Twelfth Labour, who is running in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens.

Chess Chief will be ridden in the Travers by Mike Smith.

The remainder of the field, with riders, is expected to comprise Code of Honor (John Velazquez), Endorsed (Joel Rosario), Everfast (Martin Chuan), Highest Honors (Luis Saez), Laughing Fox (Ricardo Santana Jr.), Looking At Bikinis (Javier Castellano), Mucho Gusto (Joe Talamo), Owendale (Florent Geroux), Scars are Cool (Tyler Gaffalione), Tacitus (Jose Oritz), and Tax (Irad Ortiz Jr.).

– additional reporting by Jay Privman