Life Is Good Seeks Grade 1 Laurels in Dirt Mile

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Life Is Good Seeks Grade 1 Laurels in Dirt Mile
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Susie Raisher
Life Is Good wins the Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park

To understand the star power in the Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), consider that the Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan Handicap (G1) winner is among the starters and he's not the standout.

That alone speaks volumes about Life Is Good , a son of Into Mischief   who has yet to win a grade 1 stakes but was installed as the 4-5 favorite from post 5 for the the $1 million Dirt Mile Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

While he might not be a Met Mile winner like Silver State  , Life Is Good has sparked the kind of daydreams that are rampant among 3-year-olds in the spring or late winter.

Not the fall.

But WinStar Farm and China Horse Club's Life Is Good seems as worthy of an exception to that rule of thumb as anyone could find.

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If anything, the late summer and fall have been a renaissance of sorts, resurrecting the intense enthusiasm that Life Is Good inspired in early March. Back then, the grade 2 winner was undefeated in three starts for trainer Bob Baffert and his combined winning margin of 18 1/4 lengths painted him as a leading 3-year-old for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1).

"I've always thought he could be a super horse," Baffert after Life Is Good's  dazzling March 6 eight-length victory over fellow Baffert stablemate Medina Spirit in the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe Stakes (G2).

Then ankle chips and surgery to remove them sidelined the colt for nearly six months during a time when the world around him changed.

Baffert won the Kentucky Derby with Medina Spirit, but that colt failed two post-race drug tests that cast a dark cloud over the result and led to suspensions of the Hall of Fame trainer by Churchill Downs and the New York Racing Association, prompting Life Is Good's connections to target races on the East Coast and move him into trainer Todd Pletcher's barn.

Life Is Good finally returned to the races Aug. 28  and has turned in two stellar efforts to reclaim his spot among the top 3-year-olds and dispel any notion that the surgery had sapped some of his speed. His debut for Pletcher was a very game second to multiple grade 1 winner Jackie's Warrior  in the seven-furlong H. Allen Jerkens Memorial (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. A month later, in the Kelso Handicap (G2), a one-turn mile test at Belmont Park, he faced older horses for the first time and cemented his role as the heavy favorite for the Dirt Mile by cruising to a front-running, 5 1/2-length victory in a quick 1:34.37 as a 1-20 favorite.

"He is an extremely talented horse and it's exciting to see him race," said WinStar CEO, president, and racing manager Elliott Walden about the colt bred by Gary and Mary West and purchased for $525,000 from the Paramount Sales consignment at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. "I put him up there with the best horses I've ever been around, horses like (2018 Triple Crown champion) Justify  ."

Silver State is coming off a thrilling battle with Mind Control  in the Parx Dirt Mile Stakes. 

Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stables' 5-year-old Mind Control grabbed the lead in mid-stretch of that Sept. 25 race, only to have Silver State rally from last and pass him. Yet in those final yards, Mind Control found another gear to prevail by a head.

Winchell Thoroughbreds and Willis Horton Racing's Silver State pushed his winning streak to six June 5 when he captured the one-turn Met Mile, beating Knicks Go  , one of the favorites in the $6 million Longines Breeders Cup Classic (G1). Since then he finished third behind Knicks Go in the 1 1/8-mile Whitney Stakes (G1) and second in the Parx Dirt Mile at Parx Racing.

A Hard Spun   colt bred by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings, he has won seven of 13 starts for trainer Steve Asmussen, whose already memorable 2021 campaign includes scoring nine grade 1 wins and becoming North America's all-time leader in wins.

"For any horse to win six races in a row, especially when those victories included races as well-regarded as the Oaklawn Handicap (G2) and Met Mile, is pretty incredible and puts him in a special category," co-owner Ron Winchell said about the 4-year-old who will stand at Claiborne Farm at the conclusion of his racing career.

Among the others in the field are Pat O'Brien Stakes (G2) victor Ginobili , the Baffert-trained grade 1 winner Eight Rings , and Pingxiang  rom Japan. 

Eight Rings, a 4-year-old son of Empire Maker who will be a stallion at Coolmore's Ashford Stud following his racing career, won the American Pharaoh Stakes (G1) at 2, but then lost six straight races until he captured his last start, an Oct. 2 allowance optional claimer at Santa Anita Park.


Entries: Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1)

Del Mar, Saturday, November 06, 2021, Race 6

  • Grade I
  • 1m
  • Dirt
  • $1,000,000
  • 3 yo's & up
  • 1:19 PM (local)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L
1 1Silver State (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Ricardo Santana, Jr. 126 Steven M. Asmussen 7/2
2 2Pingxiang (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Yuga Kawada 126 Hideyuki Mori 12/1
3 3Ginobili (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Drayden Van Dyke 126 Richard Baltas 4/1
4 4Jasper Prince (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Yuichi Fukunaga 126 Hideyuki Mori 30/1
5 5Life Is Good (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Irad Ortiz, Jr. 123 Todd A. Pletcher 4/5
6 6Restrainedvengence (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Edwin A. Maldonado 126 Val Brinkerhoff 20/1
7 7Snapper Sinclair (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Joel Rosario 126 Steven M. Asmussen 12/1
8 8Eight Rings (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Juan J. Hernandez 126 Bob Baffert 10/1