The Churchill Downs winner's circle doubled as a happy film room for trainer Rohan Crichton and jockey Javier Castellano—both smiling—as they relived Macho Music's May 3 wire-to-wire win in the $539,500 Pat Day Mile Stakes (G2).
Castellano said the key was the first quarter where his plan was to get the lead unless another horse went so fast they'd fade anyway. That wasn't a concern as Macho Music got the lead immediately and was able to rate through a first quarter in :22.43.
"The key ... was in the first quarter. Be aggressive, dictate my pace, control the race," he said. "I think it was the key to win the race.
"That is a game horse and when he (saw) the competition, he kept fighting all the way."
Macho Music, at 13-1, finished in 1:35.65 over the sloppy and sealed track, with a 3 1/4-length win over Bob Baffert trainee and race favorite Madaket Road.
The Florida-bred son of Maclean's Music out of the Tapit mare Southern Girl is owned by Crichton, Mark Fletcher Taylor, and Daniel Walters.
The mile race for 3-year-olds produced last year's Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Seize the Grey , but Crichton said he will target the June 7 Woody Stephens Stakes (G1) on the Belmont Stakes (G1) undercard, to be held again this year at Saratoga Race Course.
Macho Music has won four of eight starts with Saturday's triumph his first graded stakes score. He entered off a win in a seven-furlong state-bred stakes at Tampa Bay Downs and, before that, a second-place finish in the Swale Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
"I thought Javier did a fantastic job," said Crichton, who notched his first graded stakes win. "First of all, he got him to rate nicely and finished up real well," adding that the track helped his horse.
"And he's really a quick horse," he said. "This might be his fifth sub-:45 half-mile so far. So he's quick, you know, and he's able to stretch his speed, which we were a little worried about the extra furlong, but it paid off."
Maclean's Music is the sire of 2021 champion male sprinter Jackie's Warrior , 2017 Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing, and grade 1 winners Complexity and Drain the Clock . He stands at Hill 'n' Dale Farm near Paris, Ky., for a $40,000 stud fee.
Madaket Road, ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., had been intended for the lead.
"I thought the winner was coming back to us, to be honest," Ortiz said. "We were going fast. I thought we were going to be on the lead. (Trainer) Bob (Baffert) told me to send him and I can make the lead. I was working on it and I saw the horse on the outside of me going even faster. I settled down for a minute and when we came down the lane, we gave him a second chance. I thought the winner was going to come back a little bit but he never did."
Baffert's other entrant, Gaming, finished third under John Velazquez.
"I thought I had dead aim on the winner and as soon as I moved my hands, he didn't go anywhere," Velazquez said.
"The winner just wouldn't stop," Baffert said. "He didn't stop. He got out there and went. They ran well, but we wanted to win."
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