BALTIMORE — Morning line favorite Muth, the Bob Baffert-trained colt who had just arrived at Pimlico Race Course from his Southern California training base, was scratched from Saturday’s 149th running of the Preakness Stakes on Wednesday morning after spiking a fever Tuesday night.

“We are sick about this,” Baffert, the controversial Hall of Fame trainer, said in a statement. “The horse had been doing really well. But we have to do what’s right by the horse.”

Muth, the highly regarded Arkansas Derby winner, was barred from the Kentucky Derby this month because Baffert is still serving a suspension from Churchill Downs stemming from Medina Spirit’s failed drug test in 2021, which cost that colt an apparent victory.

But Muth was considered arguably the best of this year’s crop of 3-year-olds and was installed as an 8-5 favorite when morning line odds for the Preakness were released Monday. With Muth out, the favorite is likely to be Kentucky Derby champion Mystik Dan, who nosed out two rivals in a three-way photo finish May 4 in Louisville.

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The Derby champion hasn’t won the Preakness since 2018, when Baffert’s Justify did so on the way to winning the Triple Crown. When Muth and Mystik Dan last went head-to-head in the Arkansas Derby, Muth won the race by two lengths, while Mystik Dan finished third, 6¼ lengths back.

Baffert, who has won the Preakness a record eight times, still has one horse, Imagination, slated to run Saturday’s race, which is now reduced to eight starters. Like Muth, Imagination was ineligible to run in the Kentucky Derby, owing to Baffert’s suspension from Churchill Downs, which was upheld despite a late legal challenge mounted by Muth’s owner, Amr Zedan of Zedan Racing Stables.

Zedan also owned Medina Spirit, who initially won the 2021 Kentucky Derby, only to be disqualified after failing a post-race drug test. Baffert was immediately suspended from Churchill Downs for two years, with the track announcing in July that the suspension would be extended another year because of what the track called Baffert’s unwillingness “to accept responsibility.”

Assuming he recovers in a timely fashion, Muth could race next at the Belmont Stakes on June 8 at Saratoga Race Course, which is hosting the third jewel of the Triple Crown while Belmont Park undergoes renovations.

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