Life Is Good fends off Knicks Go in Pegasus
Victory caps huge day for Pletcher and Irad Ortiz Jr.
Life Is Good went to the lead right away and stayed there, winning the $3 million Pegasus World Cup with ease Saturday and denying Knicks Go what would have been a storybook finish to his career.
The 4-year-old — who may have been the Kentucky Derby favorite last year if not for an ankle injury — flashed his speed from the moment the gate opened, drawing five lengths clear after just a quarter-mile and was never challenged.
The victory capped a huge day for trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., who also teamed up to win the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf with Colonel Liam just before the main event.
Life Is Good returned $3.60, $2.10 and $2.10. Knicks Go — the likely Horse of the Year for 2021 after winning, among other things, the Pegasus and the Breeders’ Cup Classic — returned $2.10 and $2.10. Stilleto Boy, a 25-1 shot behind the 4-5 co-favorites, paid $2.80 to show.
“It was a tremendous effort,” Pletcher said about Life Is Good. “He broke clearly … He’s just a special horse.”
It was Pletcher’s first Pegasus World Cup win, and afterward, the seventime Eclipse Award winner as the game’s top
trainer heaped enormous praise on Life Is Good.
“We’ve had a lot of great ones,” Pletcher said. “I can’t think of one that’s better than him.”
For Knicks Go, it was a bittersweet end.
It was already determined that he would be retired to stand stud after this race, and the secondplace finish denied him a chance to push his career earnings past the $10 million mark. He settled into third place in the early going, battled the whole way but never could put a scare into Life Is Good.
Pegasus World Cup Turf:
Colonel Liam went back-toback for Pletcher and Ortiz, winning the Grade 1, $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf for the second consecutive year. Colonel Liam, the 8-5 favorite, watched another Pletcher trainee in Never Surprised bolt from the outside of the 12-horse field to the early lead. Never Surprised held it most of the way, before Colonel Liam pulled up alongside in the stretch and eventually got to the front. Colonel Liam returned $5.20, $3.60 and $3. Never Surprised, at 7-2, held on for second and
paid $5.20 and $4.20. Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf:
In the inaugural running of the Grade III, $500,000 Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf, heavily favored Regal Glory was pushed five wide in the early going and had to rally from deep in the pack for the win under jockey Jose Ortiz and for trainer Chad Brown. Sent off at 4-5, Regal Glory returned $3.60, $2.80 and $2.40. She was 21⁄2 lengths ahead of 19-1 shot Alms ($11.20, $6.40), while Shifty She — who had the lead entering the stretch — settled for third and paid $4.80.
San Vicente Stakes: Forbidden Kingdom beat a trio of runners trained by Bob Baffert to win the $200,000 San Vicente Stakes by 21⁄4 lengths at Santa Anita. Baffert’s trio of Pinehurst, McLaren Vale and 4-5 favorite Doppelganger finished second, third and fourth in the race that the embattled Hall of Fame trainer has won 11 times. Ridden by Juan Hernandez, Forbidden Kingdom ran seven furlongs in 1:22.75. The 3-year-old chestnut colt is a son of 2015 Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year American Pharoah, who was trained by Baffert. “I don’t mind getting beat by an American Pharoah horse,” Baffert said. “My horses ran well but that other horse was just faster.”