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| updated }} Mucho Macho Man (foaled June 15, 2008) is a retired American Thoroughbred racehorse notable as the winner of the 2013 Breeders' Cup Classic. He was foaled in Florida and named after the Village People song "Macho Man". His breeders were Carole and John Rio of Florida, who owned his dam. His foalhood nickname was "Lazarus" because he appeared lifeless at birth, but spontaneously revived. He grew to be a very large horse, standing over high. Throughout most of his racing career, Mucho Macho Man was primarily owned by Dean and Patti Reeves of Reeves Thoroughbred Racing of Suwanee, Georgia. They purchased a majority interest in him after his first race in 2010, and in 2012 became his sole owners. In February 2014, Frank Stronach purchased an undisclosed share in the horse on behalf of his Adena Springs Farms, owner of Mucho Macho Man's sire, Macho Uno. The stallion now lives at Adena Springs and began to stand at stud in the 2015 breeding season. When Dean and Patti Reeves purchased the horse, they placed him with horse trainer Tim Ritvo, who shortly thereafter began a job with Gulfstream Park. Training duties were turned over to Tim's wife and fellow trainer Kathy Ritvo, who trained Mucho Macho Man from his fourth race on. His racing career was supported by a close-knit team, led by Ritvo and the Reeves as well as Reeves' racing manager Finn Green. Mucho Macho Man was ridden in races by several top jockeys, including Rajiv Maragh, Ramon Dominguez, Mike Smith, Edgar Prado and Gary Stevens. Because Mucho Macho Man was born late in the year for a Thoroughbred foal, as a growing two- and three-year-old he had to compete against horses that were several months older and more mature. He was also very tall, and as a young racehorse sometimes got in his own way; as a three-year-old, he stepped on his front feet with his hind feet and tore off a horseshoe in two different races. In 2011, he competed in all three Triple Crown races, coming in third in the Kentucky Derby. Following a five-month layoff due to surgery that addressed a problem with his breathing, he returned to the track in November 2011 with a win, won three graded stakes races in 2012, and finished a close second to Fort Larned in that year's Breeders' Cup Classic. In 2013, after overcoming a respiratory virus early in the year, he ran two races on the east coast, finishing third both times, and then was shipped early to Santa Anita Park to prepare for that year's Breeders' Cup. He won a preparatory race, the Awesome Again Stakes, his seventh win overall and his first Grade I win. This qualified him for the 2013 Breeders' Cup Classic, which he won, narrowly defeating Will Take Charge and Declaration of War. His success earned him the Secretariat Vox Populi Award and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Moment of the Year as well as two Eclipse Award nominations and 2013 Florida-bred Horse of the Year. Sportswriter Steve Haskin, who followed the horse's career for ''The Blood-Horse'', stated that the saga "provided enough uplifting human interest stories to fill a book".〔 Mucho Macho Man returned to the track in January 2014 with a decisive win in the Sunshine Millions Classic, but finished fourth in the Santa Anita Handicap. He remained in training, still essentially sound, but following the discovery of bruising on his fetlocks and other signs of "wear and tear", he was retired in July 2014. ==Background== Mucho Macho Man is a bay horse with white markings that include a star and stripe on his face, a sock on his left hind leg, and a coronet on his front right leg. He stands over high. He was sired by Macho Uno,〔 who won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and was named American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt in 2000. Macho Uno was a son of Hall of Fame champion Holy Bull. Mucho Macho Man's dam is the 2001 Anoakia Stakes winner Ponche de Leona. Both sire and dam were owned by Frank Stronach's Adena Springs Farms at the time of mating; the pregnant mare was subsequently purchased by John and Carole Rio of Florida, where Mucho Macho Man was foaled, and thus the Rios are officially listed as his breeders. Mucho Macho Man was Ponche de Leona's second foal and was born extremely late in the foaling season on June 15, 2008; this meant that as a two- and three-year-old, not yet fully grown, he had to compete on equal terms with horses who were as much as five months older than he.〔 Ponche de Leona delivered Mucho Macho Man three weeks after her due date. At birth, the foal was lifeless with no heartbeat. Farm staff tried to revive him by massaging and shaking him. He was unresponsive for several minutes, then his eyes opened and he "just got up and galloped away". As a result, his foalhood nickname was "Lazarus". In addition to being a late foal, he was very big and hence slow to reach full development. Because the young horse was so tall and skinny, John Rio called him "Mr. Green Jeans", though no one else did.〔 His official name is derived from the Village People song "Macho Man",〔 and owner Dean Reeves' nickname for him is "Macho".〔 The Rios sold the horse as a two-year-old to Jim Culver of Dream Team One Racing Stable, keeping an ownership share for themselves.〔 After Mucho Macho Man's first race in 2010, a majority share in the colt was purchased by Dean and Patti Reeves, owners of Reeves Thoroughbred Racing of Suwanee, Georgia, near Atlanta.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.reevestr.com/contact.php )〕 When the Reeves purchased their controlling interest, he was sent into training with Tim Ritvo, but when Ritvo was appointed director of racing at Gulfstream Park in Florida, the conditioning of the colt was turned over to his wife and fellow trainer, Kathy. Jonathan "Finn" Green joined the Reeves' program as racing manager in September 2011. Mucho Macho Man overcame several health issues in 2011 and 2013. He had surgery to address a breathing problem in 2011, and suffered from a respiratory virus and hoof problems, including a quarter crack, in 2013.〔 Not only did the horse survive near-death in 2008, so did Kathy Ritvo, who had a heart transplant in November 2008. She was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy in 2001, limiting her horse training career. By 2008 her condition deteriorated to the point where she was hospitalized for several months, and she was near death when an organ became available. Less than six months after transplant surgery, she returned to training race horses.〔 In a 2011 interview, she compared her own rapid recovery to the spontaneous recovery of the horse as a foal, and stated, "from the moment I opened my eyes (surgery ), I felt fantastic. He's Mucho Macho Man and I'm Macho Woman." In 2012, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing bought out Dream Team One's 30-percent interest and became the sole owners of Mucho Macho Man.〔 Later, Mike and Laura Sivo obtained a minority share.〔 Also in 2012, the team added a permanent exercise rider to their roster: Ritvo's nephew, former jockey Nick Petro, Jr. Petro actually rode Mucho Macho Man more than anyone else. A strong support staff also worked consistently with the horse, including assistant trainer Marcelino Valencia, stable groom, Valietal Tapia, and hot walker Karina Lopez. The horse's connections remained unchanged through 2013. In February 2014, anticipating the stallion's future retirement to a stud career after the 2014 season, Adena Springs Farms purchased an interest in Mucho Macho Man, but he remained in training with the same team and raced under Reeves' colors. Frank Stronach, noting that Adena arranged the mating between Macho Uno and Ponche de Leona, described the sale as "a homecoming of sorts".〔 Mucho Macho Man was given his basic start under saddle by Carole and John Rio. Still tall and lanky, he was sent to Bill White for race training, with Carole telling the trainer, "physically this horse is late, but mentally he's way ahead."〔 Throughout his racing career, Mucho Macho Man has been described as a generally calm horse with a good temperament,〔 a "happy" horse who "likes his job",〔 "businesslike" and easy to rate.〔 However, he disliked being whipped, and was notorious for his dislike of wet conditions, performing poorly when asked to run in the mud; his worst races were on sloppy tracks. Though viewed as "laid back",〔 he was generally very fast out of the starting gate, which caused him problems twice in his three-year-old season when he tore off a front horseshoe by stepping on his own front heels with his hind feet. Ritvo said "I think he's so excited to get out of the gate that he's springing before his front feet are gone."〔 His quickness out of the gate, described by one of his jockeys as akin to that of a Quarter Horse, became an asset once he matured. Steve Haskin noted that the horse was undefeated whenever he had the lead by the eighth pole but had never won when he did not.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mucho Macho Man」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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