Prince of Monaco stamped himself as the early leader of the west coast 2-year-old division with an authoritative victory in Sunday’s $200,000 Best Pal S. (G3) at Del Mar.

Prince of Monaco was 4 ¼-lengths ahead of his stablemate Muth at the wire. Muth chased the very speedy Tranche before taking the lead with three furlongs to run. Prince of Monaco, who was several lengths back at that point, began his rally and came into the homestretch side-by-side with his stablemate.

Prince of Monaco soon got the advantage over Muth and came home very powerfully to win going away in 1:09.19 for the six furlongs on a fast track.

The time was the fastest six furlongs of the Del Mar meet, and his resulting 103 Beyer Speed Figure of 103 is the highest number for any 2-year-old in the country this year.

“We knew [Tranche] was really quick and I was hoping Muth would lay off the pace but he just engaged early,” Baffert said. “[Flavien] Prat (aboard Prince of Monaco) saw what was going on and he took back. I like the way the horse responded and [Prince of Monaco] had a good post for it.”

Prince of Monaco, whose lone previous start was an eight-length maiden win on July 9, has earned $147,000 for owners SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Dianne Bashor, Robert Masterson, Waves Edge Capital LLC, Catherine Donovan and Tom Ryan.