Life Is Good set for restart
Former Triple Crown horse who got injured to return in H. Allen Jerkens on Aug. 28
Elliott Walden, the President and CEO of Winstar Farm, has been fortunate to be a part of some pretty good horses.
He trained Victory Gallop, who spoiled the 1998 Triple Crown attempt of Real Quiet with a win in the Belmont and was the Eclipse Award winner for champion older horse in 1999. And Winstar was part of the ownership group of Justify, the 2018 Triple Crown winner.
Walden says those are his top two. He has another one that could be joining the group very soon. That is Life Is Good, a speedy son of super sire Into Mischief, who may have done some marvelous things earlier this year if not for an injury to his left hind ankle. That knocked him out of the Triple Crown races and left those close to him to play the game of “what if.”
Things are all new for Life Is Good. He’ll restart his career on Travers day when he runs in the Grade I, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens at seven furlongs. It will be his first start since winning the Grade II San Felipe on March 6 at Santa Anita. That gave him three wins in three starts by a combined margin of victory of 181⁄4 lengths.
Two of his wins came over Medina Spirit, who went on to win the Kentucky Derby, although he could be disqualified as a result of a positive post-race drug test.
Winstar owns Life Is Good along with China Horse Club.
“He is one of the few special horses I have been around,” Walden said by cellphone from Lexington, Ky., on Thursday morning. “With Victory Gallop and Justify ... Life Is Good is in the same category. He is very athletic and horses like that very rarely have a bad day, if at all. Every workout, every gallop ... he is always brilliant. Same thing with Justify.”
When Life Is Good runs in the Jerkens, it will be his first start for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Winstar moved Life Is Good to him from trainer Bob Baffert in June. He has worked four times for Pletcher in Saratoga.
Life Is Good will be ridden by Hall of Famer Mike Smith, who rode him in his first three races.
In those races, Life Is Good has never been behind a horse. In the Jerkens, he will have to contend with, among others, Jackie’s Warrior, who romped to a 7 1⁄4-length win in the Grade II Amsterdam here on Aug. 1, and Drain the Clock, who was second.
“Ideally, we would rather not have this tough a race his first race back,” Walden said. “But we believe he is a special horse. You never know until you get them back, but he has trained very well, his workouts have been very good. I think he has been moving the same.”
The Union Avenue
Awesome Debate, a 5-year-old gray mare, loves it when it rains in Saratoga, especially when she’s running.
For the second time this meet, Awesome Debate caught a sloppy track, and for the second time, she found the winner’s circle.
She and jockey Luis Saez had no problem navigating the sloppy, sealed track as they glided home a 4 1⁄4-length winner in the featured $100,000 Union Avenue at 6 1⁄2 furlongs. On July 18th, they teamed up to win an allowance optional claimer by 1 1⁄2 lengths on a sloppy strip. Trainer Bruce Brown then claimed the horse from Danny Gargan.
“The rain, I didn’t mind at all,” Brown said after the Union Avenue. “I was happy with the surface.”
Brown wanted to make sure his mare did not lose contact with the pacesetter, 2-5 favorite Sadie Lady.
“(Saez) had in mind to be aggressive and not let that horse get a loose lead,” Brown said.
Awesome Debate has now won eight of 16 career starts. Sent off as the 3-1 second choice in the field of five, she ran the distance in 1:17.48 and paid $8.60 and $4. There was no show wagering.
Charity basketball game off
The 13th annual jockeys vs. horsemen charity basketball game, which benefits the programs of the New York Race Track Chaplaincy, has been canceled. It was scheduled to be played on Wednesday, Sept. 1, in Saratoga Springs.
“With COVID-19 infection rates climbing again, we just couldn’t jeopardize the safety of the participants or the hundreds of fans who come to the game each year,” said Humberto Chavez, executive director and lead chaplain of the organization. “We are disappointed, but, hopefully, we can resume the tradition next summer during the Saratoga meet.”
The game was not played in 2020 due to the COVID -19 pandemic.
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