Muth is scratched from Preakness after spiking fever

Baltimore

Word of Muth’s exit from Preakness 2024 spread rapidly around the Pimlico stakes barn Wednesday.

“We just lost the favorite in the big race,” 1/ST Racing and Gaming president Aidan Butler said, walking hurriedly through the morning mist.

Muth was 8-5 on the morning line, 7-5 in Las Vegas futures and as short as 4-5 in international betting when it was learned he spiked a fever not long after his cross-country flight from California on Tuesday.

Longtime assistant Jimmy Barnes, who made the trip in advance to attend to Muth and stablemates Imagination and Mirahmadi, broke the news to Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who will fly in late this week.

“Jimmy called me early this morning,” Baffert said Wednesday from Santa Anita. “I knew when he called it’s not a good sign. They got there late last night. Things happen.”

The first clue, as so often is the case with horses, was a feed tub that was barely touched.

“He didn’t finish his grain,” Baffert said. “He looked quiet. He had a 103 (degree fever). We constantly take their temperatures.”

Normal for a horse is 99-101 degrees. Normal for Baffert is to have everything go smoothly after shipping to the Preakness, a race he has won a record eight times, most recently last year with National Treasure.

“I’ve been so lucky that I can’t remember one that went to a big race like this that got sick,” Baffert said.

In 2014, Baffert had to remove Hoppertunity from the Kentucky Derby and American Pharoah from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile because of foot injuries. He said a late fever was something new.

“I’ve always worried about it,” Baffert said. “I’ve seen other people’s horses get sick. Every year I see something different.”

Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan, who had been the consensus second choice in the Preakness markets, suddenly assumed the favorite’s role. Since arriving at Pimlico in the pre-dawn hours Monday, he has had an uneventful week that has been welcome to his connections.

“It takes a lot out of the equation,” trainer Kenny McPeek’s assistant Ray Bryner said after hearing about Muth’s exit. “There’s eight horses now. We’ve got to run our race and not worry about chasing the horse they called the favorite.”

Baffert said he hoped to re-aim Muth, already a two-time Grade 1 winner for Zedan Racing Stables, for the Belmont Stakes on June 8 at Saratoga. Now he is left with Santa Anita Derby (G1) runner-up Imagination, owned by the SF Racing partnership, to try to maintain his dominance of the Triple Crown’s second jewel.

“The strategy was to run 1-2,” Baffert said. “Now we can only run 1.”

Even the Mystik Dan team expressed disappointment that the horse regarded as the next big obstacle in the Triple Crown path would not be lining up Saturday.

“I was confident we were going to get revenge,” Bryner said, referring to Mystik Dan’s loss to Muth on March 30 at Oaklawn. “We had a rough trip in the Arkansas Derby (G1). We had the outside post. In the first turn we got bounced around. (Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.) told me he lost five or six lengths the way he got slammed so hard. He made up plenty of ground. He’d come on to finish third to get enough points to get in the Derby. That was invaluable right there.”

Baffert was at a loss about what caused Muth’s fever.

“I just hope those other ones don’t get sick,” he said.

The others include maiden 3-year-old Mirahmadi, a $1.05 million colt also owned by the SF Racing group. He will be in the third race Saturday, a $54,000 allowance sprint.