Breeders’ Cup Juvenile field taking shape with Bob Baffert’s Muth making the field
The crowd was into it, spurred on by track announcer by Frank Mirahmadi.
“Muuuuuth,” he said, emphasizing more vowels than are actually in the name. Those in attendance joined in.
Shortly before, down on the track, trainer Bob Baffert was hollering the same exaggerated word but was directing it at a man with his family setting up shop in anticipation of a trophy that wouldn’t belong to him.
Aaron Muth finally heard his name and walked onto the track as Baffert handed him the reins and allowed the Scottsdale resident to guide Muth, the horse, into the Winner’s Circle for a picture. Smiles were not in short supply.
It should have been Baffert’s moment, or better yet, the horse’s moment. Instead the Hall of Fame trainer directed it to a family friend, who doesn’t own the horse, doesn’t offer advice on the horse, but is infatuated with the 2-year-old colt named after him.
Muth won the Grade 1 $300,000 American Pharoah Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita by a dominating 3¾ lengths. It was the fourth time in five years that Baffert has won the race named after the Triple Crown winner he trained. It is the 12th time he has won the race, which had two previous names.
Most importantly, the race gave Muth an all expenses paid trip, plus entry fee, to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, which shouldn’t cost the Breeders’ Cup a lot of money since the race will be at Santa Anita on Nov. 3. Baffert also plans to enter Wine Me Up, who finished second in the Pharoah, and his undefeated colt Prince of Monaco, who is likely his best shot to win the race.
It really should be no surprise that the horse has done so well. Amr Zedan, a Saudi Arabian businessman and a major Baffert client, paid $2 million for the horse.
Now explaining the connection between Baffert, Zedan and Muth is an exercise in genealogy gymnastics.
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Aaron Muth explains it this way: “It’s a case of just good family friends and dumb luck. Amr and Bob are just good guys and there is nothing more to it than that. I’m in the Baffert family. I’m fortunate enough to marry his sister’s niece.”
Muth, who runs a nonprofit that gives out scholarships to low-income students, is a bit of a horse racing fanboy.
“When Amr and I were thinking of names, I said there is a friend of mine who would really appreciate it and because he loves Amr,” Baffert said. “He always says Amr’s silks are the most powerful in racing. And when horses see them, they won’t pass them. He always says stuff like that, and I said, ‘I want to name this horse Muth.’
“Amr didn’t even hesitate, ‘You do whatever you want.’ It’s a great name. And I like how Frank [Mirahmadi] calls him Muuuuuth.”
Muth was the heavy favorite, paying $2.80 to win with jockey Juan Hernandez in the 1 1/16-mile race. The horses will eventually go longer with the hope of being able to go the 1¼ miles of the Kentucky Derby. The race was a Kentucky Derby points qualifier but because Baffert is currently suspended by Churchill Downs for a medication violation in 2021 — he’s had none since — the 10 points for Muth’s first and five for Wine Me Up’s second were vacated.
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In a qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Chatalas won the Grade 2 $200,000 Chandelier Stakes. She went gate to wire to win by 1½ lengths for trainer Mark Glatt and jockey Antonio Fresu.
“All 2-year-olds get better as they get older,” Glatt said. “I would expect she’ll fall into that category. Get a little stronger and a little bigger. And we’ll look forward to the next step.”
There were other Breeders’ Cup qualifiers on Saturday.
Timberlake, trained by Brad Cox and ridden by Florent Geroux, won the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Aqueduct by 4¼ lengths and also qualified for the Juvenile. At Keeneland, Locked won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity by half a length for trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey Jose Ortiz to also get a free pass into the Juvenile.
Back at Santa Anita, it wasn’t an automatic entry but Slider seemed to punch a ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint by virtue of winning the $100,000 Speakeasy Stakes. The 2-year-old had a first and second in his only starts, both on the dirt, but trainer John Sadler thought he would try the colt on the grass.
“We switched him to the grass [Saturday] because we were hoping to run in the Juvenile Turf Sprint,” Sadler said. “I thought he was very impressive.”
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The colt gave up the lead on the back stretch of the five-furlong race and then came back to win by 1¼ lengths. He was the favorite and paid $3.80 with Hector Barrios aboard.
In other Breeders’ Cup news, Slow Down Andy, winner of the recent Awesome Again, will not be running in the $6-million Breeders’ Cup Classic after a minor problem with his ankle. The winner of the race was awarded a free pass into the richest horse race in the United States.
On Friday, Santa Anita Derby winner Practical Move returned to racing for the first time since April, easily winning a classified allowance race by four lengths. He was all set to run in the Kentucky Derby but developed a fever two days before the race and was scratched. Trainer Tim Yakteen has not announced what his next race will be but one option could be the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, where he would likely face Cody’s Wish.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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