With blinkers back on, Real Macho hangs on for upset in Carry Back

Putting blinkers back on, combined with a very honest pace scenario, helped to propel Real Macho to a head decision over the 4-5 favorite Catalytic in Friday’s $95,000 Carry Back Stakes going seven furlongs on the Gulfstream Park dirt.

Real Macho ran with blinkers in the first three starts of his career, winning his maiden at second asking going a mile in his juvenile finale. But after a disappointing fifth-place finish under allowance conditions to launch his 3-year-old campaign, trainer Rohan Crichton opted to remove blinkers for Real Macho’s next four starts, that included a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth and a distant eighth-place effort four weeks later in the Grade 1 Florida Derby.

The blinkers were back on Real Macho for the Carry Back, although even with the equipment change, the homebred son of Mucho Macho Man raced at the rear of the field alongside Catalytic in the run down the backstretch. Real Macho advanced strongly outside rivals around the turn, joined the embattled leaders entering the stretch, edged clear through midstretch, then narrowly withstood Catalytic’s final surge.

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Catalytic, whose previous start came two months earlier in the Kentucky Derby, was last entering the far turn, got hung up briefly near the inside in traffic on the bend, angled out for clearance, and finished best of all down the center of the course to just miss. Roar Ready passed tiring rivals to finish third while never a threat to the top pair.

Real Macho is owned in partnership by his breeder, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, and Crichton. The win was his third in eight starts and first stakes success. He completed the distance over a fast track in 1:23.37 seconds under jockey Emisael Jaramillo and paid $18.20.

“When he ran on Preakness Day [finished fourth in the Sir Barton Stakes], Flavien [Prat] said he was just gazing,” Crichton explained. “We had the blinkers on him before and he won. Then we took them off and he won, but he was getting distracted, so we put them back on.”

Crichton said he had no definite plans for Real Macho, although hinted a race at a one-turn mile could be next on the agenda.

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