Life Is Good heavily favored in Kelso Handicap
ELMONT, N.Y. – Last week at Belmont Park, a 1-9 shot was upset when Lone Rock got beat in the $300,000 Grand Prix American Jockey Club Invitational. Should Life Is Good lose Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Kelso Handicap here, it figures to be an even bigger upset.
Life Is Good, at one time considered the best 3-year-old in training, will look to bounce back from his first career defeat when he faces older horses for the first time in the Kelso, a one-turn mile race that is designed to be a stepping-stone to the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 6 at Del Mar.
Though Life Is Good was beaten a neck by Jackie’s Warrior in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens on Aug. 28, he was returning from a 25-week layoff and produced fractions of 21.97 seconds and 44.16 while jockey Mike Smith allowed Jackie’s Warrior to come up his inside. Once passed, Life Is Good battled back within a neck at the line.
“He’s just a very talented horse. I’m not surprised that he was able to run well off the bench,” said Todd Pletcher, who took over the training of Life Is Good this summer. “It was an ambitious goal to run in a Grade 1, we were giving up some recency to a very talented horse, but he ran terrific. Most importantly, he came out of it well and continues to train forwardly.”
Life Is Good, who will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., is the lone speed in the five-horse Kelso. Pletcher is hoping that Life Is Good doesn’t run quite as fast early Saturday as he did in the Jerkens.
“Maybe he won’t be quite as fresh this time and can lay down more reasonable fractions, although he’s capable of clipping along pretty good,” Pletcher said.
Chance It would seem to have the best chance of pulling an upset. Since returning from a 15-month layoff, Chance It has a second in the Grade 3 Smile Sprint Handicap and a third in the Grade 1 Forego behind Yaupon and Firenze Fire.
“It’s a horse race,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “Life Is Good goes there on paper as the best horse. It’s a tall task. He’s a freaky kind of horse.”
However, Joseph said when a horse runs big off a long layoff like Life Is Good did, “horses are vulnerable when they come back quick. If there’s any vulnerability, we hope to pick it up.”
Chance It breaks from post 3 under Manny Franco.
Doubly Blessed finished a well-beaten seventh in the Grade 1 Forego, a race in which he did not race on Lasix. Prior to that, Doubly Blessed had won 4 of 6 starts for trainer Mike Maker, including a 3-for-3 record at a one-turn mile.
Maker said the one-turn mile and the short field enticed him to take a shot.
Fort Peck, who is coming off a $50,000 claiming win going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga, and Informative, who pulled a 79-1 upset in the Salvator Mile at Monmouth for Uriah St. Lewis, complete the field. Informative is cross-entered in Saturday’s $200,000 Parx Dirt Mile.
With only a five-horse field, the Kelso has been carded as race 4 on a 11-race card that begins at 1 p.m.