Pedigree Profile: Muth
The $2 million auction purchase has been living up to the hype thus far
With an easy score in the San Vicente on January 6th, Muth confirmed that he is among the top three-year-olds in Bob Baffert’s stable. While he’ll have to be transferred to another trainer by January 29th in order to be eligible for the Kentucky Derby, he seems to be on the road to justifying the $2 million spent on him at last year’s OBS March sale, where he blitzed an eighth of a mile in 9 3/5 seconds.
Muth is a son of Good Magic and is the first foal out of the Uncle Mo mare Hoppa. Hoppa was an impressive maiden special weight winner going six furlongs at Churchill Downs in her second start, tracking the pace before taking over to win by five lengths geared down, but was then off slowly and failed to threaten in her third and final start. She RNA’d for $1.9 million in the 2023 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale while carrying a full sibling to Muth.
The most intriguing part of Hoppa’s pedigree is that she comes from Lowe family 21a, tracing to the mare Gris Vitesse, the dam of multiple graded stakes winner Silver Hawk and stakes winner Blast Off. Other notable horses tracing to Gris Vitesse include the G1 Frank Kilroe Mile winner Hit The Road, G1 Dewhurst Stakes winner War Command, G1 Hopeful Stakes winner Papal Power, and G1 winners in South Africa and New Zealand, all tracing to Muth’s fourth dam Beautiful Bedouin. She’s also the tail-female ancestor of the popular multiple graded stakes winner Rated R Superstar. Digging deeper into the family, all the way back to the 1882 mare Lonely, you find that this is the same female family that produced Indian Charlie, the sire of Uncle Mo.
The cross of Curlin over Uncle Mo has produced not only Muth but G3 Iroquois Stakes winner West Saratoga, who is by Exaggerator and out of an Uncle Mo mare, in just twelve starters (16.7%). Expanding to Curlin over Indian Charlie adds 26 additional starters and G3 winner Souper Sensational for a success rate of 7.9% stakes winners from starters, an improvement on the 6.8% stakes winners from all starters with Curlin in the top half of the pedigree.
Muth’s second dam, Handoverthecat, was a two-time winner at Presque Isle Downs by Tale of the Cat. Muth is the fourth stakes winner by Curlin or his sons out of mares carrying Tale of the Cat - 7.6% of 53 starters. Good Magic is the sire of stakes winner Perform out of a mare by Tale of the Cat’s son Tale of Ekati, while Curlin and his son Connect each have G3 winners out of Tale of the Cat mares.
While there isn’t a preponderance of black type in Muth’s immediate family - you have to go back to his third dam to find the stakes placed winner March to Victory, - his dam is linebred to her own female family and both his first and second damsires have done well with the Curlin sire line. Good Magic has already proven that he can get a Kentucky Derby winner, and while there’s not a lot of direct stamina influence on the bottom of his pedigree, his relaxed and versatile running style help give confidence that a mile and a quarter could be in his wheelhouse, whether that test comes in the Kentucky Derby or later on down the road.