Mor Spirit rolled to a six-length victory in Saturday's $1.2 million Metropolitan H. (G1), giving Bob Baffert his first win in the historic race.
Baffert made some history of his own on the day, winning with each of the four horses he brought to Belmont, taking the Easy Goer S. with West Coast, the Acorn S. (G1) with Abel Tasman, and the Woody Stephens S. (G2) with American Anthem prior to the Met Mile.
Mor Spirit, easy winner of the Sexton Mile (G3) last month, reached even greater heights in Saturday's “stallion-making” race. The 4-year-old broke well and was on the heels of pacesetter Sharp Azteca for the first half-mile. Midway on the turn, Mor Spirit drew on even terms and then forged ahead with a quarter-mile to run.
In the stretch, it was all Mor Spirit as he drew off from the over-matched field, finishing the mile on the fast track in 1:33.71.
“It's a pretty incredible day for us,” reflected Baffert after the four stakes wins, all coming with Mike Smith in the irons. “To be able to pull this off and I wish I had another horse in. They all shipped well, they all worked well and we put them on the plane and they all drew well. On a big day like this, for them to run, like this, it's pretty incredible”
Mor Spirit upped his earnings to $1,658,400 and has four graded stakes wins for his owner Michael Lund Petersen.