Mucho looking for more local success in Monday allowance

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – It could be argued the feature race Monday at Oaklawn Park is a stakes masquerading as an allowance. The field of nine includes graded stakes winners C Z Rocket, Concert Tour, Wells Bayou, and Mo Mosa, and stakes winners Mucho, Necker Island, and Manhattan Up.

The horses will travel a mile in the conditioned allowance for 4-year-olds and up. It goes as the eighth race on a nine-race holiday card that starts at 1 p.m. Central. The program includes a $16,000 starter allowance that drew Greeley and Ben, who was one of the winningest horses in North America in 2021.

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Mucho will get good support in the feature after running second in the $150,000 Fifth Season on Jan. 15 at Oaklawn. He set the pace and was edged by a neck in the first two-turn start for the horse, who earlier in his career ran second in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga.

“He did everything we expected him to,” said John Ortiz, who trains Mucho. “We were pleased with the results. It looks like we can stretch him out a little farther – not too far – which is why we skipped the Razorback.

“We were hoping this allowance race would go, give him another shot at winning another allowance at the meet.”

Ortiz said the Oaklawn season has been a target for Mucho, who is owned by WSS Racing and 4 G Racing. He won a local allowance over six furlongs Dec. 18 before the start in the Fifth Season. Mucho had prepped for those races in Kentucky, but for Monday’s feature worked at Oaklawn, going a half-mile in 48 seconds Feb. 16.

“He’s been training really well up to this race,” Ortiz said. “We brought him down a little earlier to Oaklawn than we have been to get a good work over the track.”

Reylu Gutierrez is in to ride Mucho, who will break from post 2. There will be no special instructions on race day, said Ortiz.

“My job is done in the paddock,” the trainer said. “The rest is on Mucho and Reylu. Their job is to carry on and finish out the rest.”

The others coming out of the Fifth Season are Necker Island, who was fourth in the race, and Concert Tour, who finished ninth. Concert Tour raced without blinkers for the first time in his career but will have them back on Monday.

Grade 2 winner C Z Rocket will be making a rare two-turn start. He is stretching out from a six-furlong allowance in which he finished third Jan. 14 at Oaklawn. The race was the horse’s first since November. Last year, C Z Rocket won both the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap and Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn.

Wells Bayou, winner of the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby in 2020, is making his first start since a third-place finish in the Oaklawn Mile last April.

Gun It owns the field’s best last-race Beyer Speed Figure, a 97 for his win in a Saratoga allowance in July.