“Life Is Good is really, really, really good” closed the race call, a summation that was accurate and succinct. A near 10 length debut win for Life Is Good at Del Mar Racecourse (USA) franked the positive whispers about the two-year-old colt and immediately ignited interest about his credentials for major classics next season.
Champion jockey Mike Smith was unable to contain his excitement post-race leaving viewers of U.S. broadcaster TVG in no doubt as to his weighty opinion of Life Is Good.
“That’s one of those debuts that indescribable,” Smith told TVG.
“You have to see it to understand how good that was. My vocabulary doesn’t go well enough to describe how good he is. He is an amazing horse, extremely well balanced and just did everything right today.”
The speed of Life Is Good, on his career debut, was blistering. He surged through breath-taking splits through the first quarter of a mile and half a mile in the manner of a more seasons elite performer and carried that speed throughout the six-and-a-half-furlong contest to win unchallenged by almost 10 lengths.
“[Life Is Good] is the kind of horse that will go 21 and 44 and you feel like you are going 23 and 48,” Smith said of the opening quarter mile and half mile splits.
“You don’t feel like you are going that fast because he does it that easy. He is just one of those really, really good horses.”
Two years ago, WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert were buoyant after the late season debut of a muscular chestnut named Improbable. The colt would go on to win the G1 Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity Stakes in December of that year before starting favourite in the G1 Kentucky Derby the following season. Improbable would finish fourth in the time-honoured feature before justifying that market confidence in 2020 as a four-year-old when stringing together three successive G1 wins and closing out his career with a gritty second in the USD6 million G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic.
The 9.5 length debut win of Life Is Good not only bolsters the 2021 stable ranks of WinStar Farm and China Horse Club following Improbable’s high-profile retirement to stud. It also ensures expectation will ride with him when he next fronts on a racetrack. But with good reason.
When asked about the prospect of Life Is Good being able to stretch his speed to the Kentucky Derby distance of a mile and a quarter (2000m), Smith was unperturbed.
“I see no problem whatsoever with it,” he added. “The more he runs, the more he will learn to relax and he will just keep getting better. He did that well within himself today, I was extremely impressed.”
Adding weight to interest in Life Is Good is a pedigree that sees him as another emerging talent by boom sire Into Mischief. The most expensive sire in the US for the 2021 breeding season, Into Mischief has enjoyed a banner year with his headline act being Kentucky Derby – Breeders’ Cup Classic conqueror Authentic.
Life Is Good and WinStar Farm/China Horse Club’s stablemate Nashville are undoubtedly two of the most exciting young horses racing in the U.S. today. The latter carried his undefeated record to three starts when breaking the Keeneland Racecourse course record earlier this month on the Breeders’ Cup undercard, earning the right to be tested in G1 company at his next outing.
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