Mucho Unusual finally gets a break

ARCADIA, Calif. – Mucho Unusual’s long march to $1 million is on hold. The Grade 1-winning turf mare, now 5, has been turned out for a midseason freshening and is expected to return later this year in her quest for a seven-figure career purse total.

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Mucho Unusual has won seven races, including four graded stakes, and earned $882,715 from 21 starts. Following her odds-on runner-up finish March 27 in the Grade 3 Santa Ana, trainer Tim Yakteen and owner-breeder George Krikorian opted to give her a rest.

“She’s getting a well-deserved break,” Yakteen said. “Since she went into training [in summer 2018], she never had a break. She’ll be on the farm 45 days, and we’ll look toward a late-summer campaign for her.”

When she is on her game, Mucho Unusual ranks among the top female turf runners in California. She has won or placed in stakes races in all four years she has raced. She won the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive last fall at Santa Anita and Grade 2 San Clemente at Del Mar in 2019. This winter at Santa Anita, she won a pair of Grade 3s. Mucho Unusual is the leading female earner sired by Mucho Macho Man.

While Mucho Unusual is being freshened at Peacefield Farm in Temecula, Calif., her 3-year-old sibling Big Talker, sired by Mr. Big, will represent the family. Big Talker is among the favorites in the featured seventh race Friday at Santa Anita, a race designed as a prep for the $150,000 Snow Chief Stakes on June 19.