Runforyourlife overcomes trouble at start to win Golden State Million Futurity

CYPRESS, Calif. - Runforyourlife overcame a bumping incident with stablemate Geothermal at the start to win Sunday’s Golden State Million Futurity at Los Alamitos, giving owner Connie Rosenthal and trainer Chris O’Dell their first win in a seven-figure race.

Runforyourlife, who was ridden by Eduardo Nicasio, held off a late surge from 6-1 Circle City to win by a nose as the favorite, paying $6.60 to win. Runforyourlife ran 400 yards in 19.92 seconds.

A Lucky Ladies Man (24-1) had a clean start and ran with Runforyourlife for the first 200 yards, eventually fading to third, beaten a half-length in the field of 10.

O’Dell trains four of the runners. Aside from Runforyourlife, his best finish was with Geothermal, who could not recover from the incident at the start and finished seventh.

Runforyourlife, who is by Favorite Cartel, has won 4 of 7 starts and earned $506,502. O’Dell, 58, said Runforyourlife will be pointed for the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity trials on Nov. 24. The final of that race is Dec. 15.

Earlier this year, Runforyourlife was second in the $365,000 Governor’s Cup Futurity at Los Alamitos on July 27 in his first appearance in a futurity.