Deftly rated by jockey Cerapio Figueroa, Southern California invader Mucino moseyed on a virtual wire-to-wire trip to capture the $51,350 C.J. Hindley-Humboldt County Marathon Handicap Sunday and give trainer Doug O’Neill a unique first-time ever North-South California “double” as the Humboldt County Fair concluded its 128th and greatest-ever mutuel handle horse racing meet.

Sent off as the 13-10 favorite, Mucino hesitated a bit leaving the starting gate, briefly dueled with Druidic in the early stages, took command then dictated all the fractions of the 1-5/8-mile test and had plenty in reserve around the final lap to register a 1-1/4-length victory over Druidic in the 70th edition of the Humboldt Marathon.

“I love Ferndale and to win a race of this stature means a lot to me,” claimed O’Neill, who earlier this month won the $1 million Pacific Classic with Mixto and became the first trainer to ever win both the Pacific Classic and Humboldt Marathon in the same year. “I give all the credit to the jockey (Cerapio Figueroa) who rated the horse perfectly.”

Mucino and Druidic contested the early stages of the Marathon before Epifanio Garcia aboard Druidic conceded the pace duties to Mucino. Following a quick first lap of the three-lap-plus Marathon test, Figueroa slowed things down on the front end, continued to control the pace then had more than enough in reserve to hold off the challenge from Sea Of Liberty with a half-mile remaining and safely fend off runner-up Druidic in the stretch. Honos Man, who captured the 2021 Humboldt Marathon, made a big move on the final backstretch but never seriously threatened the top pair and finished third, another three lengths behind Druidic. Lord Wimborne, hero of the 2023 Marathon lagged back until the final lap and moved past tiring rivals to finish fourth another two lengths back. Sea Of Liberty, Shot Of A Lifetime, Enos Slaughter and Mount Pelliar completed the eight-horse field in that order.

“I wanted to get the lead but not get involved in a speed duel,” said winning pilot Figueroa. “The horse (Mucino) relaxed well, took the tight turns well and that was a big advantage. He was actually waiting for other horses late and kicked on in that last lap and held comfortably.”

Mucino paid $4.60 win and covered the grueling 1-5/8 miles in 2:56.65.

O’Neill has certainly etched out a Hall of Fame career, having saddled two Kentucky Derby winners — I’ll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist in 2016 — won just shy of 2,900 winners, had his horses earn in excess of $160 million and had been blessed to train five Eclipse Award winners. Now, he has “X’d” another thing off his bucket list by capturing the Humboldt Marathon with Mucino, who is a son of Nyquist.

“Now I hope to make a visit to Ferndale in the future,” added O’Neill. “It certainly appears that fans support horse racing there in a big way.”

And the fans showed up in a “big” way over the final weekend, despite the fair itself having closed the previous week. There were nice-sized crowds, aided by free admission and parking.

The final day mutuel handle of $554,915, which included a Marathon single-race handle of $128,229, helped boost the meet’s total mutuel handle to $3,539,100 for the eight-day meet.

“That is the highest total handle I can ever remember in the recent history of the Humboldt Fair,” claimed Humboldt mutuel manager Doug Gooby. “Our mutuel clerks on track did a great job of taking care of the betting fans, and our out-of-state handle was big. It was a very successful meet.”

Hugo Herrera won Sunday’s first race aboard Maggie’s Faye and then had a pair of second-place finishes to overtake Francisco Monroy and capture his record-equalling eighth Humboldt riding title. The eighth crown tied him with the legendary Danny Boag. Monroy had to sit out last Sunday’s races, except for the Marathon, due to a one-day riding suspension.

Herrera compiled 107 points (in Gunnar Froines scoring system which provides five points for a win, three for a second, and one point for a third place finish) to nudge out Monroy, who rolled up 99 points. Herrera piloted 13 winners for the meet, compared to ten for Monroy, who had a bunch of second-place finishes.

Francisco Rodriguez saddled 10 winners and compiled 75 points to win the belt buckle as leading Humboldt trainer. Emilio Guerrero saddled four winners to win the award for leading out-of-state trainer.