Well-accomplished Muth heads Saturday’s Grade II, $200,000 San Vicente Stakes
At 0h02, on January 6, 2024 • By Santa Anita
Second to America’s top rated Derby hopeful in his most recent start, Bob Baffert’s Muth cuts back in distance from two consecutive routes as he heads a group of six sophomores going seven furlongs in Saturday’s Grade II, $200,000 San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita.
A winner of the Grade I American Pharoah Stakes here on Oct. 7 and subsequently second, beaten 6 ¼ lengths by Todd Pletcher’s presumptive 2-year-old champion Fierceness going a mile and one sixteenth in the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Muth seeks to give Baffert his record 13th San Vicente win.
With Juan Hernandez named to ride, Baffert, who won last year’s edition seeks his second win in a row with Santa Anita’s leading rider and his fourth San Vicente victory in the last five years.
A $2 million Ocala Breeders Sales March 2-year-old in Training Sales purchase, Muth, who is by Good Magic, was off at 1-5 in his five furlong maiden debut four starts back here on June 18, a race in which he demolished his competition by 8 ¾ lengths.
Off at 1-2 going six panels in the Grade III Best Pal Aug. 13, he finished second to stablemate and eventual Grade I Del Mar Futurity winner Prince of Monaco.
Owned by Zedan Racing Stables, Inc., Muth, with earnings of $596,600, will no doubt be a short-priced favorite with Hernandez, who seeks his third San Vicente win in-a-row, as he also took the 2022 edition with Richard Mandella’s Forbidden Kingdom.
