Mucho Unusual, a Grade 1 winner and California's 2020 Horse of the Year, has been retired from racing, with her mating plans to be determined at a later time.
The 6-year-old Mucho Macho Man mare's retirement was announced Thursday via trainer Tim Yakteen's Twitter account.
“We are sad to see her leave the barn, she has been so special to and for all of us,” Yakteen wrote in the post announcing the mare's retirement. “She returns to Starwood Farm [in Kentucky] where she was born and we await the news of who she'll be bred to.”
A California-born homebred for George Kirkorian, Mucho Unusual won eight of 24 starts for earnings of $957,415.
A multiple stakes-placed runner at two, Mucho Unusual picked up her first black type in the California Cup Oaks at Santa Anita Park the following season. Two starts later, she earned her first graded stakes score in the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes.
Mucho Unusual raced almost exclusively in graded stakes competition from that point on. She earned the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association's Horse of the Year title in 2020 with a campaign that featured victories in the G1 Rodeo Drive Stakes and G3 Robert J. Frankel Stakes. Her 2021 season started on a high note with a win in the G3 Megahertz Stakes, and she finished no worse than second in four starts that year.
The mare made two starts in 2022, both at Santa Anita, running third in the G3 Robert J. Frankel Stakes on Jan. 1 and finishing fourth in the G2 Buena Vista Stakes on March 5.
The decision has been made to retire G1 winner and Cal-Bred Horse of the Year Mucho Unusual. We are sad to see her leave the barn, she has been so special to and for all of us. She returns to Starwood Farm, KY where she was born and we await the news of who she'll be bred too. pic.twitter.com/FZyvnHvdTJ
— Tim Yakteen (@timyakteen) March 24, 2022
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