Baton of Leadership May be Passed to Life Is Good

The passing of a baton can be a figurative or literal experience.

It actually happens in a track and field relay race.

In a horse race, it's a figurative event. One that could very well take place Jan. 29 at Gulfstream Park.

With Korea Racing Authority officials saying Saturday's $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes Presented by 1/ST BET (G1) will be the final race for 2021 Pegasus victor and the near-certain winner of the upcoming Horse of the Year Eclipse Award, Knicks Go  , the stage will be set for someone to inherit or grab that baton of supremacy for the remainder of 2022.

From the looks of it, Life Is Good  could very well become that prized equine athlete.

Depending on what happens Saturday, should Life Is Good either win the Pegasus or turn in a highly gallant effort in defeat, the 4-year-old will surely become a favorite in some shape or form to be crowned as the sport's Horse of the Year for the current 2022 season.

"Life Is Good trains in the elite category that you only see in a few horses," trainer Todd Pletcher said. "The way in which he does things, it's so effortless and yet you look at the stopwatch and kinda do a double take to see how fast he's actually going. In one of his works, he came home in :22 and change and was under cruise control doing it and galloped out super."

The undefeated Flightline  also figures to have a huge say in that quest for Horse of the Year, but with that son of Tapit   lacking a two-turn race and racing only three times in his career, a Breeders' Cup winner with a record of five wins in six starts and earnings of slightly more than $1 million such as WinStar Farm and China Horse Club's Life Is Good certainly has the prestige worthy of the sport's loftiest goals.

"The exciting thing is that the Pegasus is a launching pad for Life Is Good in 2022 and the culmination of a great career for Knicks Go," said Elliott Walden, president, CEO, and racing manager of WinStar Farm. "And you also have two superstars in Life Is Good and Flightline to look forward to in 2022. It's going to be an exciting year."

Excitement has been attached to Life Is Good ever since the son of Into Mischief   appeared at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Bred by Gary and Mary West out of the Distorted Humor  mare Beach Walk and offered among the Paramount Sales consignment, he was bought for $525,000 and quickly showed great promise.

"The first time we breezed him at the farm, he showed tremendous talent," Walden said about the second of four foals and lone stakes winner from Beach Walk. "He was supposed to go a quarter-mile and I think he went :23 and 4 and galloped out in :36. We said, 'Wow.' That's not always an indicator of a good horse. I mean we've had plenty of horses breeze fast and they did not turn out to be good horses. But he showed athleticism right from the start."

Sent to trainer Bob Baffert in California, all of that potential turned into reality once the handsome bay colt reached the racetrack. 

He won his 6 1/2-furlong, Nov. 22, 2020, debut at Del Mar by a huge 9 1/2-length margin in front-running fashion then stretched out to two turns and won the Sham Stakes (G3) at a mile and the San Felipe Stakes (G2) at 1 1/16 miles, prevailing by a little less than a length and then a whopping eight lengths in the San Felipe.

That was enough to stamp Life Is Good as a favorite for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), but fate intervened. An ankle chip in his left hind leg was discovered, forcing the colt to the sidelines and ending his Triple Crown hopes.

"It was tough when he had to miss the Triple Crown, but at the same time we're a firm believer that things happen for a reason," Walden said. "You have to take things the way they come and make big decisions and adjustments from there. So I'm not going to say it wasn't disappointing, but at the same time we knew the right thing to do was to take care of the horse and if we do the right thing everything will work out."

As it turned out, with Life Is Good out of the picture, Medina Spirit  became Baffert's starter in the Run for the Roses, and though he was victorious, positive post-race drug tests have raised the possibility that he will be stripped of the win and sullied Baffert's reputation while generating suspensions by Churchill Downs and the New York Racing Association (the latter of which was lifted by a federal judge but may be reinstated pending a disciplinary hearing this week). 

With all of that happening, Life Is Good was transferred to Pletcher for an East Coast campaign and the colt returned to the races better than ever in the late summer.

"Obviously it's a little bit different to have a horse trained by two Hall of Famers, but Bob did a great job with him setting the foundation," Walden said. "He always thought very highly of this horse and mentioned him in the same breath as (Triple Crown winners) American Pharoah   and Justify  . Now Todd has him and he's had the same reaction as Bob. Todd doesn't overstate or overhype anything and yet he speaks very highly of this horse."

Life Is Good's first race for Pletcher marked his first loss but it did little to mar his stature. In facing the sharp, grade 1-winning sprinter Jackie's Warrior  in the seven-furlong H. Allen Jerkens Memorial (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, Life Is Good finished a determined second.

Despite a layoff of nearly six months, Life Is Good managed to grab the early lead against the lightning-quick Jackie's Warrior. Though Jackie's Warrior passed Life Is Good in the stretch and seemed destined to record an easy win, Life Is Good fought back in the final furlong, cutting the margin to only a neck at the wire.

"The Jerkens was a tremendous race. He lost nothing in defeat. In fact, he probably gained in stature from it," Walden said. "Jackie's Warrior is a very nice horse, a multiple grade 1 winner. For him to go toe-to-toe with him off a 175-day layoff, it showed how classy a horse he is."

After the Jerkens, Life Is Good could have been pointed to showdown with Knicks Go and the top 3-year-olds in the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), but playing catch-up convinced Pletcher and Walden to opt for the Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), which proved to be an astute decision.

Prior to Knicks Go's decisive 2 3/4-length score in the 1 1/4-mile Classic, Life Is Good was a dominant 5 3/4-length winner of the Dirt Mile, earning the Kentucky-bred a spot among the three finalists for champion 3-year-old honors and putting everything in place for Saturday's blockbuster at Gulfstream Park.

"He was already a beautiful horse but he made some changes since the Breeders' Cup. He's a 4-year-old now and he's grown up a touch more and filled out a touch more," Pletcher said. "He's a straight-forward horse. The good ones run fast and keep running fast and that's what he does."

What makes the Pegasus such a tantalizing matchup is that both Life Is Good, the 7-5 second choice, and 6-5 favorite Knicks Go are blessed with an abundance of speed. Barring a mishap at the start, they should be 1-2 by the first turn, creating the potential for an epic duel during the remainder of the 1 1/8-mile race.

"You have to focus on playing to your horse's strengths," said Pletcher, whose 4-year-old will break from post 4 under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. in the field of nine, outside of Knicks Go who landed the rail. "His high-cruising speed is his weapon and we're not going to take that away from him. We're going to focus on letting our horse do what he does best and we'll see how the chips fall."

Though Life Is Good has yet to race beyond 1 1/16 miles, his connections' thoughts of returning March 26 in the 1 1/4-mile $12 million Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline (G1) speaks volumes about their belief that he can handle the added ground with aplomb.

Should that happen, the Pegasus, which has featured such stars as Arrogate, California Chrome , Gun Runner  , and Knicks Go, might finally wind up with a dazzling daily double of both star power and an electrifying stretch battle to the wire. You won't literally see it, but there may even be the passing of a baton at some point.

"It's a great race. It's obviously a tough race with Knicks Go. Neither one of us ducked each other. We figured to both go for it. Obviously there's some other nice horses in it, but it's going to be a great thing for the sport and let the best horse win," Walden said. "Knicks Go is a great horse. I have tremendous respect for him. He's a lot like his daddy but probably more brilliant. Yet he has that fight and tenacity that Paynter   is known for. It's going to be a tremendous race. I'm excited for WinStar, I'm excited for Gulfstream, and I'm excited for the fans."