2021 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile: Life Is Good runs away from them
DEL MAR, Calif. – Life Is Good early this year looked like he might be the best member of this outstanding crop of 3-year-olds. An injury that forced him to miss the Triple Crown kept him from showing off in the spring and much of the summer, but he’s come back this fall to show what the fuss was all about.
Life Is Good on Saturday at Del Mar ran perhaps the best race of a six-race career marked by brilliant performances. He set swift fractions and kept right on motoring to score a 5 3/4-length victory in the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, giving him a record of five wins in six starts at four tracks for two different trainers and two different riders.
Forced to roll through the opening quarter in 21.88 seconds to elude his earliest challengers, Life Is Good motored through the half in 44.94 seconds, six furlongs in 1:08.76, and seven furlongs in 1:21.06 en route to a final time of 1:34.12 for one mile on the fast main track. He earned a 109 Beyer Speed Figure, the best of his career.
“With a 200-foot run-up, I knew the pace would be fast,” said his trainer, Todd Pletcher. “I was hoping he could go 22 and change. But once he cleared the other horses he got into a nice rhythm.”
Life Is Good ($3.40), the heavy favorite, disposed of the Japanese longshots Jasper Prince and Pingxiang into the first turn. Eight Rings took a run at him down the backstretch. And then on the final turn, Ginobili made his bid. He turned them all aside.
“We were hoping for that, expecting that based on the way that he’s been training, but it’s always great to see it actually happen,” Pletcher said. “He took it to them. Just too much horse.”
“He just re-broke,” said Irad Ortiz Jr., who rode Life Is Good.
As Ortiz came to the wire, he turned to his right and made a “shhh” sign, holding his right index finger up to his lips, a tribute to Miguel Mena, who often did the same when he won a race. Mena was killed last weekend, hit by a car in Louisville.
Ginobili held second by three-quarters of a length over the 40-1 shot Restrainedvengence, who finished third after a poor start and wide trip on the far turn. Eight Rings was fourth and was followed, in order, by Silver State, Snapper Sinclair, Pingxiang, and Jasper Prince.
“Ran into a freak,” said Drayden Van Dyke, who rode Ginobili. “Got the trip we wanted, but that horse found another gear. We were second best.”
Life Is Good began his career in California with Bob Baffert, and won all three of his starts – a debut win last fall at Del Mar, followed by two stakes wins earlier this year at Santa Anita – to rank as one of the top contenders for the Kentucky Derby. But he was injured, and by the time he came back his owners, WinStar Farm and CHC Inc., decided to move the horse to Pletcher after the fallout from the Derby with Baffert and Medina Spirit.
“We were a little concerned he wasn’t going to be able to run in this race, and so that’s why we decided to do that,” Kenny Troutt, the owner of WinStar, said of the move from Baffert. “And Baffert’s a great trainer and we really support him, too. So I want everybody to understand that, too. But, yeah, that was real challenging and a hard thing to do and everything.”
In his first start for Pletcher, Life Is Good suffered a narrow loss to the outstanding sprinter Jackie’s Warrior in the Grade 1 Jerkens at Saratoga. Mike Smith rode him that day and in his first three starts, but Ortiz was aboard for his next start, his final prep for the Breeders’ Cup, the Kelso, which he won. He trained sensationally coming into this race.
“It’s rare that you have a horse train as well as this horse does and breeze as impressively as he does and do everything as effortlessly and easily as he is capable of,” Pletcher said. “He’s super fast. What we have seen from him in his training is he has the ability to go fast and keep going, and I think that’s what everyone was able to see today.”
Pletcher had said recently that Life Is Good had the kind of talent that he could have run in the Sprint, Dirt Mile, or Classic on Saturday. The decision to go to the Mile was driven by the calendar. By the time Life Is Good got back to the races after a 5 1/2-month layoff, he only had time for two preps, both around one turn.
“It was too much of a stretch to run in the Classic,” said Elliott Walden, a former trainer who is the president and chief executive officer of WinStar.
Life Is Good is by Into Mischief out of the Distorted Humor mare Beach Walk. His owners purchased him as a yearling for $525,000. He earned $520,000 on Saturday to pass the $1 million mark in earnings.
There should be more to come, and enjoy, from this freakishly talented colt, as Walden said the plan is for Life Is Good to remain in training next year.