By Bloodhorse.com
ARCADIA, Calif. (Mar. 24, 2022) — George Krikorian’s grade 1-winning California-bred Mucho Unusual has been retired from racing, trainer Tim Yakteen tweeted March 24.
An eight-time winner from 24 starts with earnings of $957,415, she was California-bred Horse of the Year in 2020. That year, she won the Rodeo Drive Stakes (G1T) at Santa Anita Park, which preceded a 12th-place finish in the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T) at Keeneland.
Returned to California following that race, she rebounded to take the Robert J. Frankel Stakes (G3T) at Santa Anita in late 2020 and the Megahertz Stakes (G3T) there in early 2021, her final stakes victory. Last fall, she added an allowance optional claiming win at Santa Anita.
In two starts in 2022, the 6-year-old Mucho Macho Man homebred mare was third in the Robert J. Frankel and fourth in the Buena Vista Stakes (G2T).
Yakteen tweeted that “we are sad to see her leave the barn; she has been so special to and for all of us.” He added that she returns to Starwood Farm in Kentucky, and “we await the news of who she’ll be bred to.”
Mucho Unusual is one of two graded stakes winners out of the Unusual Heat mare Not Unusual . The other is Big Score , winner of the 2017 Transylvania Stakes Presented by Keeneland Select (G3T). The mare’s youngest foal is a yearling filly by Uncle Mo .