Mucho Gusto retired with soft-tissue injury

Mucho Gusto, the winner of the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational and four other stakes, was retired on Tuesday after sustaining a soft-tissue injury in a gallop at Santa Anita, trainer Bob Baffert said on Wednesday.

The injury was detected a little more than two weeks before Mucho Gusto was scheduled to start in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 23.

“He had a soft-tissue injury,” Baffert said. “He wasn’t sore on it. He would need a lot of time off to recover. We’d have to give him six months, so he’ll be retired.”

Baffert said stallion plans for Mucho Gusto have not been finalized, but that he has been in contact with a breeding farm. The retirement of Mucho Gusto comes less than six weeks before the start of the breeding season in mid-February.

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“The timing is pretty close,” Baffert said.

Owned by Prince Faisal Bin Khaled of Saudi Arabia, Mucho Gusto won 6 of 13 starts and earned $3,953,800. A 5-year-old horse by Mucho Macho Man, Mucho Gusto was fourth as the 1-2 favorite in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26 in his final start.

“That was going to be my Pegasus horse,” Baffert said.

Last winter, Mucho Gusto won the Pegasus World Cup Invitational at 1 1/8 miles by a convincing 4 1/4 lengths, and finished fourth in the $20 million Saudi Cup at about 1 1/8 miles in Saudi Arabia after leading to the final sixteenth. Mucho Gusto finished 2 3/4 lengths behind Maximum Security in Saudi Arabia and did not race again until the San Antonio.

Mucho Gusto won four Grade 3 races at Del Mar and Santa Anita from November 2018 to June 2019. In the summer of 2019, Mucho Gusto was second to Maximum Security in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park and third to Code of Honor in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga in consecutive starts.

Purchased for $625,000 at a 2-year-olds in-training sale in 2018, Mucho Gusto was initially raced by Michael Lund Petersen before being acquired by Prince Faisel Bin Khaled prior to the 2020 Pegasus World Cup.