Last month’s Grade II Risen Star Stakes winner Mucho
Macho Man, owned by Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Dream Team One Racing
Stable, will be returning from his Gulfstream
Park home base to run in the Grade
II Louisiana Derby on March 26, trainer Kathy Ritvo confirmed
Thursday morning while speaking over the phone from South
Florida.
The Louisiana Derby, centerpiece event of the Fair Grounds
racing season, will carry a $1 million purse for the first time in its
98-year history this year and become the richest Thoroughbred race ever run in New
Orleans.
“Yes, we’re coming back,” Ritvo said of the Macho Uno colt
who was runner-up in Aqueduct’s Grade II Remsen and Grade II Nashua Stakes last
fall before finishing fourth in Gulfstream’s Grade III Holy Bull Stakes Jan.
30. “Mucho Macho Man seemed to love the track at Fair Grounds, so there’s no
reason not to come back. The horse is doing great and we’re all looking forward
to coming back to New
Orleans.
“We’ll probably arrive in the middle of the week like we
did last time, and I’ll be flying on the plane with him,” Ritvo concluded.
Earlier this week, trainer Ken McPeek confirmed that
Catesby Clay’s Rogue Romance, third in the Risen Star and third in the Grade
I Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last fall, will also be returning from South Florida to run in
the Louisiana Derby.
MIGUEL MENA THREE WINS SHY OF 1,000-CAREER WIN MILESTONE
Jockey Miguel Mena enters Friday’s 10-race program
at Fair Grounds with 997 wins and has seven mounts scheduled for the day in his
pursuit of the 1,000 career win milestone.
The native of Lima, Peru, has his first mount in the second
half of Friday’s Daily Double aboard Stephen Smoot’s Berry Valid as the
3-1 morning line choice in the wagering and Mena comes right back in the third
race on Donamire Farm’s Class Clown, also pegged at 3-1.
Mena’s other five mounts are in the fifth race on Parrish,
Randall and Schenck’s August High (10-1), the seventh race on Southern
Equine Stables’ Show Elle Thestage (7-2), the eighth on Willis Horton’s
Diamond Benz (6-1 but entered for main track only), the ninth on
Robert Orth and Wesley Hawley’s Couric (9-2), and in Friday’s finale
aboard Kevin Mullikin’s Pioneering Native at 4-1 in the morning line.