Muth, Tamara Top Maiden Watch Breeders’ Cup Starters

This column highlights the performances of maidens who have made no more than five starts and who either sold for more than $500,000 at public auction, have siblings that are grade/group winners, or have dams that are grade/group winners. BloodHorse research shows maiden winners, in particular, who meet these criteria are more likely to go on to be graded stakes winners. The following list below highlights horses that have met the Maiden Watch criteria and have gone onto become starters in this year’s Breeders’ Cup Championships Nov. 3-4 at Santa Anita Park.

Nine graduates of Maiden Watch will line up in four different races on Breeders’ Cup Friday. All juveniles, two of these special nine have reached grade 1 success and go into their races with a potential Eclipse Award on the line.

Zedan Racing Stables’ Muth , a star from day one after dropping the hammer for $2 million at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, enters the starting gate as the co-second choice for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). The Bob Baffert trainee, a dazzling gate-to-wire winner of his debut June 18 at Santa Anita Park, followed up with a runner-up finish in the Best Pal Stakes (G3) before turning in one of the top 2-year-old performances of the year in his American Pharoah Stakes (G1) victory. Stretching out from six furlongs to the Juvenile distance of 1 1/16 miles, Muth flashed a new dimension when rating behind his rivals early in the American Pharoah only to deliver a devastating kick at the top of the lane.

Muth hasn’t been the only Maiden Watch alum tearing up the California coast. Spendthrift’s homebred Tamara  has been flawless in her two starts ahead of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1). A carbon copy of her dam, the brilliant Hall of Fame race mare Beholder , Tamara scored a professional debut win for trainer Richard Mandella prior to a 6 3/4-length romp in the Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1) Sept. 9.

Although the daughter of Bolt d’Oro   hasn’t ventured beyond seven furlongs, the 1 1/16 miles of the Juvenile Fillies should be right up her alley with her pedigree. Beholder, after all, was victorious in the 2012 Juvenile Fillies, the first of her three Breeders’ Cup wins.

Other notable Maiden Watch performers include the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) contenders Agate Road  and Can Group . Agate Road, a son of Quality Road   out of the grade 1-winning mare Yellow Agate , was a second-time-out winner at Saratoga Race Course who then rallied to take the Pilgrim Stakes (G2T) Oct. 4 at the Belmont at the Big A meeting.

Can Group took three tries to break his maiden but did so decisively at Kentucky Downs Sept. 2 for trainer Mark Casse. The Good Samaritan   colt then closed from last to land the Bourbon Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland in a thrilling photo finish.

Omaha Girl  (Juvenile Fillies), Austere  (Juvenile Fillies Turf, G1), Gala Brand  (Juvenile Fillies Turf), Pharoah’s Wine  (Juvenile Fillies Turf), and Tok Tok  (Juvenile Turf) complete the Maiden Watch roster on Breeders’ Cup Friday.