Mucho Macho Man loses shoe in Preakness

Mucho Macho Man loses shoe in Preakness; Isn't He Perfect candidate for Belmont

MUCHO MACHO MAN (Macho Uno), third in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and sixth in Saturday's Preakness S. (G1) after losing a front shoe, headed back to Belmont Park Sunday morning.



"He caught his left front shoe. I'm going to watch the replay over and over and over again; I need to find out what happened with it," said trainer Kathy Ritvo, whose colt also lost his right front shoe in a third-place finish in the Louisiana Derby (G2).



"He's got to be doing something. I haven't had a horse pull a shoe for three or four years and now I've got two in three races," she added. "I think he's snatching himself coming out of the gate. I think he's so excited to get out of the gate that he's springing before his front feet are gone. He's not a nervous horse. It's got to be something. I've got to figure out what happened and when he lost it."



Mucho Macho Man had some early traffic problems before racing four and five-wide under jockey Rajiv Maragh in the Preakness.



"Rajiv said he wasn't handling the track. When he got to the quarter-pole, he was just jumping up and down," Ritvo said. "He's got little cuts all over him, but no big deal."



Ritvo added that Mucho Macho Man appeared to come out of the Preakness in good shape and was doing well Sunday morning. She's going to continue to assess his condition before making a decision on whether to run in the Belmont S. (G1) on June 11.


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