Mucho Gusto steps forward with Bob Hope Stakes win

Hours after trainer Bob Baffert added the debut winner Coliseum to his array of 2019 Kentucky Derby hopefuls, Mucho Gusto emerged a winner of the Grade 3, $100,000 Bob Hope Stakes for 2-year-olds.

And, as they say, the rich got richer.

Mucho Gusto, a debut winner at Los Alamitos, set the pace and turned back a pair of challengers in the Del Mar stretch to move his record to 2-for-2. Off at 4-5, the son of first-crop sire Mucho Macho Man is bred to go longer, too.

This, a seven-furlong test, came with Joe Talamo in the irons. Mucho Gusto was squeezed leaving the gate but then dashed out to the lead, setting early fractions of 22.36 and 45.36. By the time the leader reached the top of the lane, more experienced rivals Savagery and Sparky Ville ranged up to his outside.

But Mucho Gusto dug in through the stretch to prevail.

“I lost time when he got sick and this was a good race for him," Baffert said. "He’s a pretty cool horse. There’s nothing flashy about him, but he gets the job done.

"They went fast early, but when they came to him, he re-broke like the good ones do. I was with my assistant and I said ‘Here’s when you find out what they’re made of.’”

The final time was 1:23.51 with Savagery getting up for second over Sparky Ville.

Talamo also rode Coliseum, a Godolphin-owned and bred son of Tapit who won his Saturday debut by open lengths.

"I'm very excited about these two," Talamo said. "I haven't had a good 2-year-old in a while, and luckily Bob's given me two already. We're still a long ways off -- anything can happen -- but it's definitely something to get excited about."

Baffert also trains the likely 2-year-old champion, Game Winner, and Improbable, who won a recent juvenile stakes and is bound for the Los Alamitos Futurity (G1) on Dec. 8. Michael Lund Petersen, who campaigns Mucho Gusto, won the 2015 Futurity with Mor Spirit, who went on to run in the next year's Kentucky Derby.

A pair of Bob Hope Stakes contenders, Metropol and Sueno, scratched to leave five runners. The former represented Baffert’s second entry in the race as another maiden winner going to stakes second out. Metropol missed the race due to a spiked fever this week.