BAFFERT’S LIFE IS GOOD OFF THE KENTUCKY DERBY TRAIL

Likely favorite Life Is Good will miss the Santa Anita Derby in two weeks, and is off the Kentucky Derby trail. The 3-year-old colt had completed a 6-furlong workout on Saturday morning when his trainer, Bob Baffert, noticed there was something off in his hind end.

“He came back to the barn after the work and was off when he turned,” Baffert told the Daily Racing Form. “We have to do more tests on him. It’s nothing obvious, but he’s out of the Santa Anita Derby.”

Later, it was announced Life Is Good, bred by Gary and Mary West of Rancho Santa Fe, would ship to Kentucky to be examined, but the injury isn’t expected to be career-ending at this point.

Life Is Good is undefeated in three starts. This year he won both the Sham Stakes and San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita. He was the 2-1 Kentucky Derby favorite in the latest Futures pool.

He is owned by Winstar Farm and the China Horse Club, the main owners of Triple Crown winner Justify.

More horse racing

Hot Rod Charlie, coowned by Del Mar’s Bill Strauss, led wire to wire to win the $1 million Louisiana Derby by 2 lengths over Midnight Bourbon and earn 100 points toward qualification for the Kentucky Derby. The major prep race for Triple Crown hopefuls was run in front of a mostly empty clubhouse and grandstand at Fair Ground Race Course in New Orleans because of crowd restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Leandro Mora, Doug O’neill’s assistant, was the listed trainer because O’neill is currently serving a suspension, and with jockey Joel Rosario aboard, Hot Rod Charlie ($7.80) ran 13⁄16 miles in 1:55.06.

• Trainer Richard Mandella’s classy turf star United ($3.80) came back running at Santa Anita, as he stalked the early pace and motored to an emphatic three-quarter length win in the Grade III San Luis Rey Stakes.

Soccer

Manchester City’s bid for an unprecedented quadruple of major trophies stayed alive thanks to late goals by Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne in a 2-0 win over Everton in the quarterfinals of the

FA Cup. Southampton is the other team through to the FA Cup semifinals after beating second-tier Bournemouth 3-0 earlier Saturday.

Tennis

Wild card Aslan Karatsev defeated South African qualifier Lloyd Harris 6-3, 6-2 in the final of the Dubai Championships for his first title.

• Daria Kasatkina and

Margarita Gasparyan advanced to the final of the St. Petersburg (Russia) Ladies Trophy. Eighth-seeded Kasatkina rallied from a set down for the second time in as many days to upset fourthseeded Svetlana Kuznetsova 1-6, 6-0, 6-2. Gasparyan saved four set points in the second set before beating fellow wild card Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 7-6 (9).

Skiing

Petra Vlhova won the women’s World Cup overall title as the first Slovakian to be crowned the best all-around skier. Needing only a top-14 finish in her specialist slalom event in Switzerland, Vlhova placed sixth in a race Katharina Liensberger won by 1.24 seconds. That earned Liensberger the season-long discipline title, edging Mikaela Shiffrin who also placed second in Saturday’s race.

Local colleges

Thanks to three errors, the USD baseball team (12-4, 1-1 WCC) dropped a 4-3 decision at Saint Mary’s (11-8, 1-1). The loss broke a nine-game winning streak for the Toreros.

• The San Diego State baseball team (11-4, 6-2 Mountain West) swept a doubleheader from visiting Air Force (6-8, 0-5) by scores of 9-2 and 5-1.

Locally

The San Diego Gulls scored the first goal of the game then proceeded to give up the next five, all in the first period, in a 6-2 loss to the host Tucson Roadrunners. The Gulls (9-10) have lost five in a row.

• The San Diego Sockers (4-6) used a five-goal fourth quarter to out-run the host Dallas Sidekicks, 9-4. Kraig Chiles returned to the club in style with a hat trick and two assists.

• The San Diego Legion opened their 2021 Major League Rugby season with a 36-29 loss to Rugby United New York in Las Vegas.