TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1087484
the pot a little bit, and he decided to sell me the horse, who turned out to be Mucho Macho Man. So, that is a long way from the Turks and Caicos islands to where we are today. It was all from Patti going to the gym and meeting Esther." It turned out that Reeves did know what he was doing when he picked out that horse as Mucho Macho Man would take Dean and Patti Reeves on the ride of their lives. Tim Ritvo took a job with The Stronach Group shor tly after the pur- chase, leaving his wife Kathy in charge of the stable's new acquisition and she proved more than up for the job. After breaking his maiden, Mucho Macho Man finished second to To Honor and Serve in both the GII Nashua S. and GII Remsen S., putting himself and his new connections on the Kentucky Derby trail. "I remember telling a lot of the family, 'You know, I have this pretty good horse here. We might go to the Kentucky Der- by,'" recalled Dean Reeves. "I thought to myself, ' I d o n' t h a v e a c l u e a b o u t h o w y o u e v e n d o that.' So, I called up Chur- chill Downs. Patti was sitting there and I said, 'This is Dean Reeves. I have a horse and I want to see how I get him in the Kentucky Derby.' The race secretary said, 'Who is your horse?' I said, 'Mucho Macho Man.' He said, 'Oh yeah, we have him on the watch list.' I turned to Patti and said, 'They've heard of him!' I couldn't believe it. They've heard of our horse! He told me Kathy would know all about it, but you have to nominate him and all that." The Derby trail, like the Keeneland sale,