“One Step at a Time, Baby Steps”: Baffert on the Return of Muth

GI Arkansas Derby winner Muth (Good Magic) marked his return to the races Sunday with a victory in the Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar.

Checking off the initial box on his road back, the $2 million OBS March topper is now poised to take the next step on the road to this fall's Breeders' Cup, which will be held at Del Mar Nov. 4-5.

“He's always been a really smart horse,” said trainer Bob Baffert. “You can place him wherever you want to. He had to move a little earlier because my other horse [Imagination] was breathing down his neck [in the Shared Belief]. It's good see him back off that long layoff. Now we can point for the California Crown.”

The new GI California Crown, formerly the Awesome Again, will be run at Santa Anita on Sept. 28. The nine-furlong test is worth $1 million and is a “Win and You're In” for the Classic.

Precluded from running in the Kentucky Derby due his trainer's ineligibility, the Zedan Racing colt was knocked out of last spring's GI Preakness Stakes due to illness.

“It was so disappointing to have him ready for the Preakness then he gets sick,” Baffert recalls. “Something I was always worried about throughout my career, that these big horses would get sick. During the Triple Crown with [American] 'Pharoah' and Justify I went all those years and finally it hits. I think that's what every trainer worries about is sickness. When they get sick and they're travelling, that's why it hit him so hard.”

Muth broke his maiden first out and then ran second in last year's GIII Best Pal Stakes, followed by a win in the GI American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita and a runner-up finish to Fierceness in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He started this year with victories in the GII San Vicente and Arkansas Derby before falling ill in May.

“That was a really tough race,” Baffert noted of this weekend's Shared Belief. “There were some good 3-year-olds. It was like a Grade II race. There are no easy spots down here at Del Mar. All of them are going to be tough.”