Mucho Macho Man loses shoe

Mucho Macho Man finishes third and loses to Pants On Fire in the Louisiana Derby, not exactly the headlines I wanted to be reading this morning. Not only did I bet him yesterday and was shut out, more importantly one of my favorite horses in this years 3yo crop is once again hit by bad luck! Mucho Macho Man has now had his heel clipped in the Remsen, was bumped hard out in the chute for the Holy Bull and now tosses a shoe in the gate at the Louisiana Derby, running 1 1/8th miles without it to finish 3rd.

“Apparently he stepped on it right out of the gate and ran the whole race without it,” trainer Katherine Ritvo said. “It’s an excuse, but Pants On Fire (also) ran a great race.”

“He had a little damage around the outside of the hoof, but nothing major, fortunately,” said Dean Reeves who is the majority owner of Mucho Macho Man. “I suspect it’ll be pretty sore tomorrow after running the full 1 1/8 miles without a shoe. We hope he will recover quickly and we’ll head onward to Churchill.”

When trainer Katherine Ritvo was asked if running the entire race without one shoe would would compromise Mucho Macho Man’s chances of running in the Kentucky Derby, she replied “It looks like he should be fine,”.

So for all you Mucho Macho Man fans out there, hope that everything comes in three’s and that is the end of his string of bad luck in 2011! Who knows, maybe now he will go on a string of good luck for his next three races which will likely be the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. Stranger things have happened…

The Kentucky Derby takes place on May 7th at Churchill Downs in Louisville Kentucky. The Kentucky Derby is presented by Yum! Brands and will be televised on NBC.

Cheers,

Jack