A 3-year old gelding bred, owned, and trained by Mike Machowsky is Caracortado. The horse was given the name – Spanish for “Scarface” –as a result of an injury the horse sustained while he was training. “He must have cut himself on a fence or in his stall or something, like young horses can do,” Machowsky said in a recent teleconference.
A California-bred gelding who has a modest pedigree is Caracortado, horse betting favorite. The second crop of $1,500 sire Cat Dreams is him. He is the most successful of his sire’s progeny so far, going undefeated in his first five races.
His first-place finish at the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes on February 13 was the greatest of his first five wins. Tiz Chrome and American Lion, the two favorites in the race was upset by him. He spent the first part of the race comfortably racing in third place behind the two favorites before making his move near the end, winning the race by 1 ¾ lengths.
At the San Felipe Stakes, Caracortado’s winning streak came to an end on March 13.. Two lengths behind Sidney’s Candy, good enough for third place was finished by Caracortado. Sidney’s Candy led the race wire-to-wire.
Sidney’s Candy would again win over Caracortado, this time at the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on Saturday, April 3. The victim of bad luck during the race was Caracortado. Jockey Paul Atkinson, had to slam on the brakes on the far turn while following race favorite Lookin At Lucky. Atkinson thought Lookin At Lucky was going to fall. Despite the setback, Caracortado was able to finish in fourth place.
The most preferred betting horse, Caracortado appears to be on the bubble for the Kentucky Derby in spite of his strong start. The Santa Anita Derby was entered into with $108,000 in career earnings and the Derby cutoff will likely be about $200,000. He would have needed to finish in at least second at the Santa Anita Derby to reach that figure.