Macho Uno On Track For Sophomore Campaign

From Gulfstream Park
Macho Uno, winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in his last start of 2000, arrived safely at Gulfstream on Saturday. The newly turned 3-year-old was shipped by van from Frank Stronach's Adena Springs South Farm in Ocala, and is bedded down with trainer Joe Orseno's stable.

"He shipped well and doesn't look any the worse for wear," Orseno said. "He's been training at the farm with Danny Vella. We left him up there a bit longer than originally planned because it's real quiet there and we wanted to let him continue to train that way for as long as we could. He's five-eighths ready, but I'll start him at a half-mile and go from there. We're looking to run Macho Uno in the Fountain of Youth Stakes."

The $200,000 Fountain of Youth is a grade I test for 3-year-olds at one mile and one-sixteenth on Feb. 17 and is the main steppingstone towards Gulfstream's showcase race, the $1 million Florida Derby to be run at 1 1/8 miles on March 10.

Macho Uno is a lightly raced son of 1994 Horse of the Year Holy Bull and is a half-brother to Awesome Again, who won the 1998 Breeders' Cup Classic. He began his career by capturing a maiden race under wraps at Saratoga in New York on July 16. The roan colt then rallied five wide but came up a neck short when third in the seven-furlong Hopeful Stakes (G1) at that same track on Sept. 2.

Orseno shipped Macho Uno to Canada for the 1 1/16 miles Grey Breeders' on Oct. 9, and he proved to be an easy seven-length winner. The colt then was sent to Churchill Downs for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Nov. 4. Macho Uno held off the late charge of Point Given to win that event by a nose. That race marked the end of the colt's season, and he was sent to Ocala.

"We shipped him to the farm to let him mature," Orseno said. "He's a talented colt. He's got a lot of ability but he's still a young colt who is developing. We tried to manage him where he only raced four times last year. He's still got more to learn.

"Our agenda is to run him in the Fountain Of Youth and the Florida Derby, then the Wood Memorial in New York followed by the Kentucky Derby," Orseno said. "Of course, that is if everything works out the way we want it to work out. Jerry Bailey rode him in the Breeders' Cup and I expect him to ride Macho Uno through those races."