THIS week’s column has a real American theme, and while the eyes of the racing world were firmly fixed on Europe a fortnight ago, last weekend it was the turn of the USA.

Two more Grade 1 races for juveniles are under the microscope now. Muth was runner-up in the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar after making a winning debut, but he had his sights set high last weekend, and emerged with flying colours after his success in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita. It is fitting that he has won at this level, given that he was a $2 million purchase at the OBS March Sale this year. He had been a $190,000 Keeneland yearling.

Winning trainer Bob Baffert continued his domination of the American Pharoah Stakes, which was renamed for the horse he trained to win the 2015 Triple Crown. That colt captured what was then called the FrontRunner Stakes in 2014. Baffert has now won the race, which began as the Norfolk Stakes, a record 12 times, dating back to Souvenir Copy in 1997.

The race has been called the American Pharoah since 2018, and of those six runnings, Baffert has won it five times.

If all goes well, Muth will compete next in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, as will the Baffert-trained Prince Of Monaco who is unbeaten, having won the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity and Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar, beating Muth.

The Don Alberto Corporation bred Muth out of the successful Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie) mare Hoppa, a winner at three. Muth is the mare’s first foal, and her 2022 filly by Violence (Medaglia D’Oro) sold for $385,000 at the recent Keeneland September Yearling Sale to Rigney Racing, successful at the weekend with Grade 2 winner Buchu. Muth went through the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale as part of the Hill ‘n’ Dale Sales Agency consignment, while Top Line Sales sold him at OBS.

War Command

While Muth is the first stakes winner in three generations of his family, his unraced third dam, Frayne (Red Ransom) is a full-sister to Wandering Star and Out Of Egypt. The former won the Grade 2 (now Grade 1) E.P. Taylor Stakes and bred the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes winner War Command (War Front). The once-raced Out Of Egypt is the dam of the champion two-year-old and Group 1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas winner Rollout The Carpet (Holy Roman Emperor).

Muth is from the second crop of Good Magic (Curlin), who in his first crop of three-year-olds sired Mage, winner of this year’s Grade 1 Kentucky Derby. Last year he sired the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes winner Blazing Sevens, and his total of 14 stakes winners includes three that are current two-year-olds. The stallion stood for a 2023 stud fee of $50,000 at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms in Kentucky.

The first crop by the champion older horse Gun Runner (Candy Ride), raced in 2021 and contains Grade 1 winners Echo Zulu (champion at two, four Grade 1 wins including Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies), Taiba (three Grade 1s including Santa Anita Derby), Gunite (Forego Stakes and Hopeful Stakes), Cyberknife (Arkansas Derby and Haskell Stakes), Early Voting (Preakness Stakes) and Society (Cotillion Stakes).

Contrast

The stallion’s current crop of three-year-olds are a contrast, containing among their number a quartet of Grade 3 winners, including the Grade 1 Travers Stakes runner-up Disarm and the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby third Il Miracolo, as well as the Grade 1-placed Dreamlike. Gun Runner’s juvenile runners are led by Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity winner Locked, and includes the Grade 2 winner Chatalas.

Locked fetched $425,000 as a yearling and is the second winner out of the successful Malibu Moon (A P Indy) mare Luna Rosa. The other is her three-year-old son Mega Moon (Frosted). Well done to Grade One Investments who spent just $40,000 to acquire the yearling colt by Caravaggio (Scat Daddy) out of Luna Rosa last month at Keeneland.

Luna Rosa is a half-sister to the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes and Santa Monica Handicap winner Gabby’s Golden Gal (Medaglia D’Oro), and she is a winner producer in Japan where she went after selling to Shadai Farm 13 years ago for $1.25 million. Her Grade 2 winning sibling Always A Princess (Leroidesanimaux) was runner-up in the Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes, while their dam, Gabriellina Giof (Ashkalani), was a stakes winner at two in Italy and the following year in the USA.