Mucho Gusto, the winner of the Bob Hope S.-G3 at Del Mar on Saturday, November 17, contributed his sire’s first graded stakes win. Mucho Macho Man currently ranks at number nine on the first crop sires list, with $499,811 in earnings. With only 70 named two-year-olds in his first crop, and 31 runners, Mucho Macho Man, who stands at Adena Springs in Kentucky, alongside his sire Macho Uno, has seven winners, and two repeat winners. His number of winners is at a respectable near 10% compared to his crop numbers, and Mucho Gusto is his second stakes winner, along with Mucho Unusual.  Mucho Gusto, owned by Michael Lund Petersen, bred by Teneri Farm and Bernardo Calderon, and trained by the ubiquitous Bob Baffert with Joe Talamo up, has a decidedly more interesting and classic pedigree that deserves examination.

Mucho Macho Man was a serious racehorse, earning over $5.6 million, and raced until he was six, demonstrating both consistency and soundness. Included in his wins were the Breeders’ Cup Classic-G1, the Woodward S.-G1, and the Awesome Again S.-G1, defeating serious competition, not to mention his second-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic to Fort Larned the year before his win in that most prestigious event, and his third in the Grade One Kentucky Derby. In 25 starts, he hit the board in 20.

His relatively undistinguished dams’ side, however, offers a perfect match with Macho Uno’s dams’ side, presenting as it does one of the most powerful crosses in the stud book, the combination of Blushing Groom and Nijinsky II. It should also be mentioned that Macho Uno is a half-brother to perennial great Awesome Again. The common factor is their mother, Primal Force, by Blushing Groom, out of the Mr. Prospector mare Prime Prospect. In Mucho Gusto, the combination of Nijinsky/Blushing Groom/Mr. Prospector that we find in his sire, Mucho Macho Man, is echoed perfectly in his dam, Itsagiantscauseway, providing a beautifully balanced zig-zag pedigree, these important bloodlines coming through both the male and female side of his family.

The Nijinsky/Blushing Groom cross isn’t just magic. If you trace their families back just a few generations, you’ll find that these two important sires are very closely related, via powerful influences from the past. First of all, both are from the Nearco sire line, and Nearco appears three generations back in both sire lines.

These appearances represent the most fruitful strains of Nearco, through Northern Dancer in Nijinsky, and through Nasrullah in Blushing Groom. In Blushing Groom’s sire line, Nasrullah also brings along his dam, Mumtaz Begum, a three parts sister to the great Mahmoud, which draws out the Mahmoud in Northern Dancer’s pedigree, as his dam, Natalma, is out of the very best daughter of Mahmoud.

Mahmoud’s sire was Blenheim II, by Blandford. This strain of Blenheim/Blandford is matched, clearly, in Nasrullah’s pedigree, but Blushing Groom also features two other doses of Blandford, both through Blushing Groom’s dam, Runaway Bride. There is also a double dose of the great Menow, through Nijinsky’s dam, Flaming Page, and through Blushing Groom’s sire, Red God. Add in numerous doses, top and bottom, of the offspring of the blue hen Plucky Liege, through her sons Bull Dog and Sir Gallahad, and matching appearances of Roi Herode (once in Nijinsky, twice in Blushing Groom), and these two pedigrees begin to seem as if they represent near genetic twins, with the ingredients shaken, not stirred, to create slightly different combinations. It’s no wonder that this cross creates fantastic horses like Lammtarra, among many others, nor does it surprise that the cross continues to work with sons of Nijinsky on Blushing Groom mares, and vice versa.

There is a near-triplet to add to those mixed up twins, and that is Storm Bird. Mucho Gusto is out of a Giant’s Causeway mare, as previously mentioned, and Giant’s Causeway represents one of the most potent crosses for Storm Cat, with his Rahy (Blushing Groom) dam. As a son of Storm Bird, Storm Cat crossed brilliantly with both Blushing Groom and Nijinsky, and the reason is his sire, Storm Bird. Like Nijinsky, Storm Bird was a son of Northern Dancer, thus bringing all the strengths of that pedigree—Nearco, Mahmoud, Blenheim and Blandford to the mix. Like Nijinsky as well, Storm Bird features Bull Dog in his dams’ side, through Bull Page and Blue Lea, and Sir Gallahad through his son Gallant Fox, exactly as Nijinsky does.

So Mucho Gusto features the Nijinsky/Blushing Groom twinning top and bottom, and his dams’ side adds to this twinning the near-triplet Storm Bird. It’s worth noting that the Nijinsky in Mucho Macho Man is through a daughter, Street Ballet, while in Mucho Gusto’s dams’ side Nijinsky appears through his son, Green Dancer, both made more powerful by the introduction of the Storm Cat sire line through Giant’s Causeway. Blushing Groom appears in Mucho Macho Man through his own daughter, Primal Force, also the dam of Awesome Again, and in Mucho Gusto’s dams’ side, through the great Rahy, a son of Blushing Groom. The zig zags keep on coming.

We can’t ignore, either, the twinning of Mr. Prospector in Mucho Gusto’s pedigree. In Mucho Macho Man, Mr. P appears through Ponche, an undistinguished son of Two Punch, himself a lesser son of Mr. P., and in Primal Force, whose dam is the Mr. Prospector mare Prime Prospect, the zig zag once again. Mucho Gusto, however, brings the true power of Mr. P through his second dam’s sire, Seeking the Gold, one of Mr. P.’s first rate sons, reeling in and galvanizing the power of Mr. Prospector found in Mucho Macho Man.

This Seeking the Gold second dam, Countervail, is a daughter of the Green Dancer (Nijinsky) mare Strike a Balance, and Strike a Balance is a force to be reckoned with, because Mr. P. loves being coupled with Nijinsky almost as much as Blushing Groom. Strike a Balance is a sire-maker: she is the second dam of Alternation; her dam is the third dam of Broken Vow; and she was the dam of Peaks and Valleys (by Mt Livermore, again the Blushing Groom/Nijinsky cross), and therefore appears in the pedigree of the young stud Conquest Curlinate.

Though Macho Uno’s sire, Holy Bull, was an exemplar of tough, blue collar, American dirt/speed breeding, he had no difficulty with distance and could carry his speed. Holy Bull destroyed decent competition, and was a big, muscular, masculine example of thoroughbred gorgeousness. Adena Springs has long appreciated what his looks and pedigree bring to breeding, and committed to carrying his line forward in Macho Uno and Mucho Macho Man. His presence in Mucho Gusto’s pedigree offsets all of the turf breeding, making it possible for Mucho Gusto to be any kind of horse as a three-year-old. Remember, Mucho Macho Man ran from two to six on his iron legs. It’s also worth noting a hint of stamina in Mucho Macho Man’s dams’ side, in the equine personage of Hoist the Flag. With all this, don’t be surprised to see Mucho Gusto going the distance as a three-year-old, perhaps even in the Run for the Roses.

-- Roberta Smoodin

Thanks to Thoroughbred People contributor and bloodstock consultant Roberta Smoodin for this article. Roberta offers pedigree analysis for sales and breeding recommendation services for your broodmares - please contact Roberta at [email protected] for more information.