Freshened Tommy Macho heads field in Hooper Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Tommy Macho will return to the scene of arguably the two best performances of his career Saturday as the likely favorite in a full and well-matched field of 11 older horses in the $175,000 Fred W. Hooper Stakes.

Tommy Macho won the 2016 edition of the Grade 3 Hooper by 3 3/4 lengths and returned 11 months later to win the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope by nearly six lengths for trainer Todd Pletcher, posting the two highest Beyer Speed Figures, 103 and 105 respectively, of his 18-race career. The 5-year-old son of Macho Uno has gone winless in six subsequent starts since the 2017 Hal’s Hope, but has been Grade 1-placed twice and Grade 2-placed twice during that period.

“He’s been holding his own against some very sharp company,” Pletcher said. “His last start he was fourth to Sharp Azteca and the time before that Drefong, and the time before that [third to] Mind Your Biscuits; and he finished third in the Met. He’s shown up and run hard every time, it’s just he’s been running up against some monsters.”

Tommy Macho, who has not started since his fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Kelso on Sept. 23, will have his regular rider, Luis Saez, back aboard Saturday.

“We just felt like he’d had a pretty steady campaign and that it was time for a freshening,” Pletcher said. “We know that he traditionally likes Gulfstream, and he’s run well in this race before. We’ve been pointing for it for a while.”

The stretch-running Tommy Macho will have no shortage of speed to run at if the field holds together for the one-mile Hooper. A bevy of pace candidates is signed on for the race, including the steadily improving Eight Town, stakes-winning Conquest Big E, red-hot First Growth and Midwest invader Moves Like Ali.

The remainder of the field includes Game Over and Giuseppe the Great, both of whom are on the also-eligible list for the Pegasus World Cup later on the card; Tale of Silence, Beasley, Dreaming of Gold, and Frammento.

Beasley also will get some class relief returning to Grade 3 company after finishing a distant eighth in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile in his 3-year-old finale. Beasley posted the highest Beyer Speed Figure of any member of the Hooper lineup, a 106, when rallying to a third-place finish behind Tom’s Ready in the Grade 3 Bold Ruler Handicap last fall at Belmont Park.

“I think we got in a little deep last time and maybe reacted a little to the big number he had run in the race in the Bold Ruler,” trainer Mark Hennig said. “He ran such a big number that maybe it was a little quick back for him. I thought the spacing was good for this race and kind of gives us a place to start the year out.”

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A lively pace also would prove beneficial to Giuseppe the Great, if he goes. Giuseppe the Great is coming off a popular, albeit hard-fought, allowance win here Dec. 10 when closing a very successful 3-year-old campaign, during which he was Grade 1-placed behind West Coast in the Pennsylvania Derby and a distant second in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy.

Eight Town could be the sleeper stepping into stakes company and stretching to a mile for the first time after posting three consecutive sprint victories, capped by a wire-to-wire, one-length allowance win here in his 3-year-old finale Dec. 7.

First Growth has impressed in his first two local starts, both going six furlongs, winning the Claiming Crown Express by 3 1/2 lengths on opening day of the meet before extending world-class sprinter X Y Jet to a half-length decision making his graded stakes debut in the Mr. Prospector.

Conquest Big E shortens to a one-turn mile after fading late, setting a lively pace going 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday five weeks ago. Conquest Big E earned high marks with two easy, back-to-back wins at a mile versus lesser company here last summer.