Life Is Good, Essential Quality, First Captain work within minutes of each other
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Life Is Good was the top 3-year-old this winter. Essential Quality, last year’s 2-year-old champion, emerged as the top 3-year-old of the spring. First Captain is attempting to get into the conversation this summer.
On Saturday, at dawn in Saratoga, the trio of 3-year-olds, each put in workouts within about a 10-minute span.
Life Is Good, now in the barn of Todd Pletcher, worked four furlongs in 48.88 seconds just after the Oklahoma training track opened at 5:30 a.m. He got his last quarter in 23.76 seconds.
It was Life Is Good’s fourth workout since recovering from surgery to remove a chip in a hind ankle in early spring. Life Is Good, formerly trained by Bob Baffert, won the Grade 3 Sham in January and Grade 2 San Felipe on March 6, beating Medina Spirit both times. Medina Spirit finished first in the Kentucky Derby, a result now pending following a failed post-race drug test.
Elliott Walden, president and CEO of WinStar Farm, which owns Life Is Good in partnership with China Horse Club, was on hand for the workout. Walden said Life Is Good will be considered for the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens, a seven-furlong race on Aug. 28, or the Grade 3, $300,000 Smarty Jones Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile race at Parx. Either race could be a prep for the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 25.
“He’s doing super,” Walden said. “That was his third half, he had a couple of halves at Keeneland before he came in. We’ll see where he’s at.”
Essential Quality, the Belmont Stakes and Blue Grass Stakes winner this year, worked five furlongs in 1:00.89 over Saratoga’s main track in preparation for a start in next Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes.
Working in company with Bingo John, Essential Quality was timed by Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch in fractions of 23.45 seconds for the quarter, 47.51 for the half and he galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.75. Luis Saez was aboard for the work for the second straight week.
“Luis was happy with him so that’s important,” trainer Brad Cox said. “He cooled out well, he scoped great, he seems to have settled in well, He likes it here. I’m very happy where he is at.”
First Captain, undefeated winner of the Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes, worked a half-mile in 52.95 seconds over the Oklahoma training track. In company with Cambi Lion, First Captain began the work at the three-furlong pole, hitting the wire in 39.87 seconds and went out another eighth in 13.08 seconds and continued out in 1:05.56 and 1:18.31.
“He’s got to run around two turns for the first time so we worked him from the three-eighths to the seven-eighths and then on out,” trainer Shug McGaughey said.
First Captain is pointing to Friday’s $120,000 Curlin Stakes, which is open to 3-year-olds who have not won a stakes over a mile distance. Though he’s a graded-stakes winner already, since the win came going one mile, First Captain remains eligible for the Curlin. McGaughey said he would prefer to have an easier race going two turns before facing a horse like Essential Quality, which he figures will happen in the Travers here on Aug. 28.
“Essential Quality has got the seasoning, he’s got the races around two turns where First Captain doesn’t,” McGaughey said.
Keepmeinmind, third in the Ohio Derby, went a half-mile in 46.01 seconds, the fastest of 112 works at the distance over the main track.
“It was his third work over the track, it was very strong and he galloped out very good,” trainer Robertino Diodoro said.
Diodoro said Joel Rosario will replace David Cohen in the saddle for the Jim Dandy.
“Just trying something different,” Diodoro said. “David is still our guy, nothing against David for sure.”
Weyburn, the Grade 3 Gotham winner, worked five furlongs in 59.48 seconds over the main track, running away from his workmate Rift Valley in the final furlong. Weyburn galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.63 and seven furlongs in 1:26.88.
While both Keepmeimind and Weyburn are eligible for the Curlin, they are both targeting the Jim Dandy.
King Fury targets Saratoga Derby
King Fury will use the Grade 1, $1 million Saratoga Derby Invitational on turf as a stepping-stone to the Grade 1 Travers on Aug. 28, trainer Ken McPeek said Saturday.
King Fury, the Grade 3 Lexington winner and Ohio Derby runner-up, was being pointed to the Grade 2 Jim Dandy next Saturday. But King Fury is one of 30 horses in Barn 86, which has been under quarantine since July 11 owing to a horse who had been stabled in that barn testing positive for equine herpesvirus. Horses stabled in that barn are not permitted to race until the quarantine is lifted on Aug. 1, the day after the Jim Dandy.
On Saturday, King Fury worked five furlongs in 59.72 seconds over the Oklahoma dirt course, finishing about a dozen lengths or so in front of the Grade 1-winning filly Simply Ravishing.
McPeek-trained horses are allowed to work beginning at 11 a.m., after the general horse population has trained.
“He was ultra-impressive,” McPeek, who saw a video of the work, said from Kentucky. “He’s really turning into a beast.”
Though King Fury has never before raced on turf, McPeek said, “I think he could win it anyway as good as he’s doing. I don’t think he’ll have any trouble handling the grass.
“Jose Ortiz has committed to riding him. It gives us another option with him but the summer goal is still the Travers.”
Simply Ravishing, who tired in the work, was given a five-furlong time of 1:02.47.
For Simply Ravishing, that was her third work since the 3-year-old filly was brought back into training after failing to get in foal to Into Mischief. Simply Ravishing, winner of the Grade 1 Alcibiades last year, was retired due to a breathing issue following a last place finish in the Ashland.
McPeek is pointing Simply Ravishing, a daughter of Laoban, to the Statue of Liberty division of the New York stallion Series on turf on Aug. 4.
Swiss Skydiver, last year’s 3-year-old filly champion, worked five furlongs in 1:01.41, beating the 3-year-old filly Crazy Beautiful by two lengths. Swiss Skydiver got her last quarter in 23.86 seconds and galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.42 and seven furlongs in 1:27.63.
Swiss Skydiver, who had been pointing to Sunday’s Shuvee Stakes here before the quarantine situation, has been re-routed to the Grade 1 Whitney against males on Aug. 7. Crazy Beautiful, who was supposed to run in Saturday’s Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, will train up to the Alabama on Aug. 21, McPeek said.