Life Is Good has big shoes to fill in Sham Stakes

Last year, a son of Into Mischief won his debut sprinting at the Del Mar fall meeting for trainer Bob Baffert, then made his two-turn debut in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita the first weekend of the new year. Things turned out pretty well for Authentic, who won the Sham and a lot more, including the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic.

This year, a son of Into Mischief won his debut sprinting at the Del Mar fall meeting for Baffert, and on Saturday will make his two-turn debut in the one-mile Sham. This year’s model is Life Is Good, who will try to emulate Authentic on Saturday and in coming months.

“Until they go two turns, you don’t know.” Baffert said. “Authentic, he was pretty impressive.

“Gamine,” he said, referring to his Into Mischief filly who won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, “she struggled. They have to prove it to me.”

The $100,000 Sham, for 3-year-olds, offers a good test for Life Is Good to see if he can ration his natural speed, which carried him to a 9 1/2-length victory in his debut while earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 91. In his last work, on Sunday, Life Is Good was finishing strongly while motoring six furlongs in 1:10.60; the next-fastest of five other works at the distance that morning was two seconds slower. But in his prior work, in which he went six furlongs in 1:12.80, Life Is Good was too aggressive early.

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It’s up to jockey Mike Smith to try and help Life Is Good along. Baffert chose Smith for Life Is Good’s debut because he thought Life Is Good might be “too much horse” for a less-experienced rider.

“I told Mike, ‘Be careful, don’t move on him,’ ” Baffert said. “He tried to make the gap, but Mike was ready for him.”

Life Is Good benefits by landing the outside post in a field of five, so he won’t have pressure from the outside.

If Life Is Good can’t handle two turns, Parnelli is poised to pounce. He has taken a while to come around for John Shirreffs, finally beating maidens in his fourth start Nov. 28 at Del Mar, but he’s already made three starts around two turns and he’s trained sharply since, outfinishing stablemate Waspirant in a drill last Sunday.

Waspirant is making his first start since finishing fourth in the Grade 1 American Pharoah on Sept. 26.

Medina Spirit, also trained by Baffert, got a Beyer Speed Figure of 76 for his debut sprint win against maidens last month at Los Alamitos.

Uncle Boogie was a distant second to Red Flag in the Grade 3 Bob Hope at Del Mar last time out. A minor setback kept him out of the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity two weeks ago. He’s worked once since.

The Sham, worth 10 Derby points to the winner, is race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 12:30 p.m. Pacific.