Muth is headed to Calif. Crown, no plan yet for Formidable Man

“One step at a time, baby steps,” trainer Bob Baffert urged Sunday after his star pupil, Muth, won the $125,000 Shared Belief at Del Mar.

Muth has been on the radar ever since Amr Zedan dropped $2 million to purchase the colt at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales March sale of 2-year-olds in training last year. But a setback just before this year’s Preakness led to a lot of anticipation and anxiety leading up to Sunday’s Shared Belief.

The son of Good Magic put all those fears to rest when he held off stablemate Imagination through the lane and then a late-charging Indispensable to win the race and get back on track for a run at the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar in November.

“He’s always been a really smart horse,” Baffert said. “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. It’s good see him back off that long layoff. Now we can point for the California Crown.”

The new California Crown, formerly the Awesome Again, will be run at Santa Anita on Sept. 28th. It’s 1 1/8 miles and, though it’s worth $1 million, it is considered a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic and is a win-and-you’re-in for that race.

“It was so disappointing to have him ready for the Preakness then he gets sick,” Baffert said. “Something I was always worried about throughout my career, that these big horses would get sick. During the Triple Crown with ‘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 traveling, that’s why it hit him so hard.”

Muth has won three races in a row. He broke his maiden first out and then ran second in last year’s Best Pal (G3), followed by a win in the American Pharoah (G1) at Santa Anita and a runner-up finish to Fierceness in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He started this year with victories in the San Vicente (G2) and Arkansas Derby (G1) before falling ill in May.

“That was a really tough race,” Baffert said of this year’s Shared Belief. “There were some good 3-year-olds. It was like a Grade 2 race. There are no easy spots down here at Del Mar. All of them are going to be tough”

The Shared Belief is a listed race even though it has produced graded-stakes runners for several years now. Last year, the co-winner in the dead heat for the win, Mr. Fisk, went on to win this year’s Gold Cup (G1). The 2021 winner, Medina Spirit, went on to win the Awesome Again (G1) and run second to Knicks Go in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar. The 2019 winner of the Shared Belief, Improbable, went on to win the Gold Cup, the Whitney (G1) at Saratoga and the Awesome Again. The 2016 winner, Accelerate won an Eclipse Award after taking the Pacific Classic (G1) and the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2018 and would have been horse of the year had it not been for Justify and his Triple Crown triumph that year.

Meanwhile, the future of the other big winner at Del Mar on Sunday, Formidable Man, is still undecided. He held off rival Stay Hot to win the Del Mar Derby (G2) for his second victory at the meet. He also won the Oceanside Stakes on opening day.

“We probably rushed him a little bit after he broke his maiden here (last year),” trainer Michael McCarthy said. “Maybe went a little bit too quick, so we backed off and things have just come along for him with each and every race. He seems to get a little bit better. Today he was prominent throughout. The fractions were not all that fast, 50 and change, but he’s getting professional and maturing and he loves his job. A bit like his father who was late maturing, too. It’s exciting to see where this will take us.”

Formidable Man is a son of City of Light, the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner in 2018 who also was trained by McCarthy. The colt seems to like the 1 1/8 miles, having won an entry-level allowance race at that distance at Santa Anita in March and now the Del Mar Derby.

“Winning at a mile and an eighth before this was key,” McCarthy said. “I kept on waiting for Peter Eurton’s horse (Stay Hot) to come up alongside of us and he did. He ran his race and made his run. We were lucky to get to the wire first.”

As for what’s next for Formidable Man, we’ll have to wait and see.

“There’s a 3-year-old race up at Santa Anita,” McCarthy noted, “but he’s been pretty busy this year so I think we’ll play it by ear.”

That race is the Twilight Derby (G2), which is run a week before the Breeders’ Cup.