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Muth, the morning-line favorite for the Preakness, will scratch from the race due to an elevated temperature.
BALTIMORE – Bob Baffert looked at his phone shortly after 5 a.m. Pacific time Wednesday morning and saw an incoming call from his assistant Jimmy Barnes, who was across the country at Pimlico.
“When Jimmy calls me early, that’s not a good sign,” Baffert said.
Indeed, the news was not good. Barnes called to tell Baffert that Muth, the morning-line favorite for Saturday’s $2 million Preakness Stakes, spiked a 103-degree temperature, forcing him to have to scratch from the race.
“We’ve been sitting on this, zeroed in on it, primed and just ready, sitting on go and boom this happens,” Baffert said. “I’ve always worried about stuff like this. I remember all those races when I was going for the Triple Crown, thinking ‘God, I hope he doesn’t get sick’ and finally, it happened to me.”
Muth hasn’t run since winning the Arkansas Derby, a race in which Mystik Dan finished third. Mystik Dan came back to win the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago.
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Muth, along with his stablemate Imagination, arrived in Baltimore on Tuesday night following a FedEx flight from Southern California. Baffert said the trip took close to 18 hours, owing to a delay in Los Angeles. Baffert said while horses frequently get shipping fever and can get over it quickly, the fact Muth’s temperature was as high as 103 degrees and he did not eat made it an easy decision to scratch.
“I didn’t want to take any chances, it was a quick call,” Baffert said. “You got to jump on it right away, you got to treat it and forget about it.”
Baffert, who has won the Preakness a record eight times, will still be represented in the race by Imagination, who is coming off a runner-up performance in the Santa Anita Derby.
“This other horse is getting better,” Baffert said. “He’s been working well” with Muth.
The scratch of Muth will likely leave Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan as the favorite for the Preakness, which is now down to an eight-horse field.
Kenny McPeek, trainer of Mystik Dan, expressed disappointment that Muth was out of the race.
“I’m gutted for Bob and racing fans,” he said. “This was a race that a lot of people were looking forward to. As trainers we deal that. Bob is doing the right thing, he’s always done the right thing.”
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Asked if the defection of Muth puts added pressure on him, McPeek said, “Pressure’s self-inflicted. We’ve done all our work. It might put a little more pressure on” jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. “He handles it.”
On Wednesday, over a sealed, sloppy Pimlico main track, Mystik Dan had his most vigorous training session since the Kentucky Derby.
After backing up to the 4 1/2-furlong pole, Mystik Dan, under Robby Albarado, leisurely galloped to the top of the stretch. At the three-sixteenths pole – where the Preakness will start – Mystik Dan broke into a more serious gallop while running in the four path, which is now where he will start in the race.
Mystik Dan went around the track at a little bit slower than a two-minute clip – meaning going each furlong in 15 seconds – before picking it up at the quarter pole. Daily Racing Form timed Mystik Dan in 30.79 seconds from the quarter pole to the wire.
“That was nothing for him,” Albarado said. “At the sixteenth pole, I kind of squeezed him, he jumped in my hands, that was what I was waiting for. After going that clip, I wanted to know if he was there for me and he was. I’m getting more and more confident every day that goes by.”
McPeek, who was still in Kentucky on Wednesday morning, said he wanted to do something serious with Mystik Dan on Wednesday, similar to the Wednesday before the Kentucky Derby when he had the horse come out of the starting gate before galloping.
“We wanted to emulate the circ*mstances of the Preakness,” McPeek said. “Contemplated between jumping out of the gate or jumping him from a standstill position. He still needs to leave there clean, he did that in the Derby. We didn’t rest on our laurels. I don’t know if I’d call it a workout as much a swift gallop.”
While Mystik Dan will likely be favored, the role of second choice could fall to Tuscan Gold, the Chad Brown-trained runner who is coming out of a third-place finish in the Louisiana Derby.
Brown also expressed disappointment about the scratch of Muth, calling it “a trainer’s worst nightmare. I genuinely feel bad for them. It’s such a simple thing that doesn’t end up being a big deal, but you only get one crack at it. Timing is everything, and everything has to go right.”
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