2022 Eclipse Awards: Life Is Good

In a Hall of Fame career that has spanned 26 years, trainer Todd Pletcher has conditioned 12 champions, two Kentucky Derby winners, and four Belmont Stakes winners.

While Life Is Good doesn’t fall into any of those categories, Pletcher still calls him, “As good a horse as we’ve ever had.”

In 2022, Life Is Good was about as good a horse as anybody trained, winning three Grade 1 stakes – the Pegasus World Cup Invitational, Whitney, and Woodward – as part of a 4-for-6 campaign that resulted in him being named a finalist for an Eclipse Award in the older dirt male division.

A son of Into Mischief bred by Gary and Mary West and owned by China Horse Club and WinStar Farm, Life Is Good entered 2022 with a near-perfect career record. He was 5 for 6 with a neck loss to champion Jackie’s Warrior in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens in the summer of 2021.

What was supposed to be a matchup of speed between Life Is Good and 2021 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Knicks Go in the $3 million Pegasus in January turned into a mismatch. Life Is Good easily made the lead and went on to beat Knicks Go – the 2021 Horse of the Year – by 3 1/4 lengths.

:: Full list of 2022 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

That race appeared to set Life Is Good up perfectly for the $12 million Dubai World Cup in March. Seemingly cruising on the lead, Life Is Good weakened in the final furlong of the 1 1/4-mile race and finished fourth, 2 1/4 lengths behind winner Country Grammer. Pletcher felt the deep Meydan surface had more to do with the result than Life Is Good’s inability to see out 10 furlongs.

Back in the U.S., Life Is Good rebounded with a facile five-length victory over Grade 1 winner Speaker’s Corner in the Grade 2 John Nerud Stakes going seven furlongs at Belmont Park. Life is Good then used his speed to win the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga and Grade 1 Woodward at the Belmont at the Big A meet.

While his Woodward score was not as dominant as many expected, his connections still pushed forward to the Breeders’ Cup Classic and a meeting with Flightline to decide Horse of the Year.

In that race, Life Is Good opened up a two-length advantage under Irad Ortiz Jr. while running six furlongs in 1:09.27, but succumbed to the mighty Flightline and finished fifth, 12 1/2 lengths behind.

“We could have chosen an easier path on Breeders’ Cup Day, the Dirt Mile or the Sprint, we just felt like he deserved a chance to be champion,” Pletcher said. “He just happened to fall in the same year as Flightline, who was just another special horse.”

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Pletcher, who trained Life Is Good for two of his three racing seasons, said: “It was a lot of fun for us to have him. He’ll probably be as good a horse as ever not to win an Eclipse Award.”

Life Is Good, who won 9 of 12 starts and earned $4.5 million, will stand his first season at stud in 2023 at WinStar Farm.

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