Life Is Great comes into Winkfield off rough trip

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In the pecking order of things, great is better than good. One exception could be when it comes to horse’s names. On Saturday, Life Is Good was set to run as one of the favorites in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park. On Sunday, Life Is Great hopes to make a name for himself in a seemingly wide-open $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct.

While Life Is Good was entered in the Pegasus as a four-time graded stakes winner, Life Is Great has one win from six starts. That came Nov. 20, when he took a seven-furlong maiden race by 6 3/4 lengths, a race from which the runner-up, Sky and Sand, came back to dominate a maiden race at Oaklawn Park.

Meanwhile, Life Is Great shipped to Laurel Park on Dec. 26 and was sent off the 3-5 favorite in the Heft Stakes. He didn’t have the smoothest of trips and wound up third behind 59-1 shot Shake Em Loose.

“He got pinned on the fence, he had to make three runs,” said Bob Klesaris, who trains Life Is Great for Esteban Vargas. “I don’t know it’s advantageous for a 3-year-old to have to make three runs.”

Klesaris has seen improvement in his horse, a son of Tapiture. Early in his career, Life Is Great “wanted to go as far as he could as fast as he could,” Klesaris said. Lately, the horse has been more manageable to settle.

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“It’s taken a while to harness the horse’s speed,” Klesaris said. “He’s learning.”

Klesaris also notes that Life Is Great ran into some pretty good horses in some of his early maiden races. High Oak, to whom Life Is Great finished third on debut at Saratoga, won the Grade 2 Saratoga Special. American Xperiment, who beat Life Is Great in his second start, is Grade 1-placed. Mo Donegal, who beat Life Is Great by seven lengths in October, came back to win the Grade 2 Remsen.

Life Is Great drew post 6 in what is an eight-horse field entered for the Winkfield. However, four of those eight horses were cross-entered in Saturday’s $100,000 Spectacular Bid Stakes at Laurel. Weather could play a role on where, or even if, these horses get to race.

Hagler is entered only in the Winkfield. Hagler, like Life Is Great, is owned by Vargas. He is trained by Rudy Rodriguez.

Hagler was a front-running winner of a seven-furlong maiden race on Dec. 16. He wheeled back in 16 days in the Jerome Stakes and faded to fifth after setting the pace. Rodriguez is adding blinkers to Hagler’s equipment, saying the horse got distracted in his last start.

Jorge Vargas Jr. rides Hagler from post 8.

Morello, a son of Classic Empire, was a good-looking debut winner of a six-furlong maiden race on Nov. 27 at Aqueduct. The runner-up, Inevtabl Conection, came back to win his maiden by 3 3/4 lengths here Dec. 30.

Dance Code, winner of the Parx Juvenile, is the only other member of this field who is not cross-entered in Maryland.

The connections of Coastal Mission, Beast Or Famine, H P Moon, and Witty will have decisions to make on where they will run.