Mutasaabeq might get another shot at main track in Mucho Macho Man

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The first major 3-year-old stakes of the new year at Gulfstream Park will be the one-mile Mucho Macho Man on Jan. 2, and it could feature a return to dirt for Grade 2 turf winner Mutasaabeq, trainer Todd Pletcher reported.

Mutasaabeq launched his career with an impressive win on the main track before finishing a distant third in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga, also on the main track. He then switched to grass to win the Grade 2 Bourbon at Keeneland before finishing a troubled 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

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“I want to give him another try on the dirt,” Pletcher explained. “He’s been training well, I want to see where we are with him, and the Mucho Macho Man looks like a good spot to do that.”

Pletcher has gotten off to a quick start in quest of yet another Gulfstream Park training title, with 12 wins over the first three weeks of the meet.

“We felt like we had a lot of horses training well coming into the meet, especially a lot of first-time starters and such, although you don’t always know how they’ll do until you get them over to run,” Pletcher said. “Fortunately, many of them have run well, and it’s always nice when you have young horses perform well in their debuts, especially at this time of year, when there are so many options if they continue to run well.”

Pletcher also reported that two of his top older horses, undefeated Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Happy Saver and Breeders’ Cup Distaff runner-up Valiance, remain on the farm in Kentucky and are not expected to rejoin the barn until sometime next month.

“We have no exact arrival date yet, but right now I’d say there’s a fairly good chance neither one would make a start during the Gulfstream meet,” Pletcher said.

◗ Turf works are few and far between at Gulfstream Park, although the course was open Wednesday for the Shug McGaughey-trained team of North Dakota and Sentry, with the former holding a slight edge after breezing four furlongs in 48.07 seconds. The steadily improving North Dakota, winner of the Grade 3 Red Smith at Aqueduct in his last start, has the option of starting next in either the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf or the 1 1/2-mile Grade 3 W.L. Mcknight, both here Jan. 23.