Bob Baffert | Horse Racing Free Tips

Life Is Good Tabbed Individual Favorite In Second Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool

CHC Inc and WinStar Farm's undefeated $100,000 Sham Stakes (Grade 3) winner Life Is Good was made the 6-1 individual morning line favorite in Pool 2 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager (“KDFW”), but the pari-mutuel field of “All Other 3-Year-Olds” is expected to be the overall choice in the three-day wager that begins Friday.

While Life Is Good was made the individual favorite in Pool 2 of the KDFW, veteran oddsmaker Mike Battaglia tabbed “All Other 3-Year-Olds as the overall 9-5 morning line favorite in the field of 24 betting interests. The pari-mutuel field for the first pool of the New Year has closed as the bettors' choice every year since the wager was inaugurated in 1999, and the final odds were 5-2 in five of the last six years.

The pool will open Friday at noon and close Sunday at 6 p.m. (all times Eastern). Wagers can be placed online at www.TwinSpires.com, as well as racetracks and simulcast centers throughout the country.

Life Is Good, based at Santa Anita with six-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Bob Baffert, scored a front-running victory in the Jan. 2 Sham besting his stablemate Medina Spirit. Life is Good is one of five 3-year-olds in Pool 2 for Baffert. The others are debut winner Concert Tour; $200,000 Los Alamitos Futurity (G2) winner Spielberg; and the unraced, highly-touted colt Bezos. This is the first time an unraced horse has made the field in the KDFW.

Another horse expected to receive strong backing is $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) winner Essential Quality. Listed at 8-1 on the morning line odds, Essential Quality has a perfect record through three starts with a three-quarters of a length win in the Juvenile over fellow Pool 2 interests Hot Rod Charlie, Keepmeinmind and Jackie's Warrior. Trained by Brad Cox, Essential Quality is preparing for his 3-year-old campaign at Fair Grounds where he has worked five times since his Juvenile score.

Cox is represented in KDFW Pool 2 with three other wagering interests: nine-length maiden winner and likely favorite in Friday's $150,000 Smarty Jones Caddo River; $200,000 Lecomte (G3) third-place finisher Mandaloun; and eye-catching debut winner Prate.

The complete field for Pool 2 of the KDFW (with trainer and morning line odds): #1 Bezos (Baffert, 20-1); #2 Caddo River (Cox, 30-1); #3 Capo Kane (Harold Wyner, 30-1); #4 Concert Tour (Baffert, 15-1); #5 Essential Quality (Cox, 8-1); #6 Fire At Will (Mike Maker, 30-1); #7 Greatest Honour (Shug McGaughey III, 50-1); #8 Highly Motivated (Chad Brown, 20-1); #9 Hot Rod Charlie (Doug O'Neill, 30-1); #10 Jackie's Warrior (Steve Asmussen, 20-1); #11 Keepmeinmind (Robertino Diodoro, 20-1); #12 Life Is Good (Baffert, 6-1); #13 Mandaloun (Cox, 20-1); #14 Medina Spirit (Baffert, 12-1); #15 Midnight Bourbon (Asmussen, 30-1); #16 Mutasaabeq (Todd Pletcher, 30-1); #17 Olympiad (Bill Mott, 50-1); #18 Prate (Cox, 30-1); #19 Prime Factor (Pletcher, 30-1); #20 Proxy (Mike Stidham, 50-1); #21 Senor Buscador (Todd Fincher, 20-1); #22 Spielberg (Baffert, 30-1); #23 Wipe the Slate (O'Neill, 50-1); and #24 “All Other 3-Year-Olds” (9-5).

There are 14 new betting interests from Pool 1, which was staged Nov. 26-29. In that pool, “All Other 3-Year-Old Colts and Geldings” closed as the 6-5 favorite and was followed by Life Is Good (5-1); Essential Quality (8-1); Jackie's Warrior (18-1); Highly Motivated (18-1); Keepmeinmind (19-1); Caddo River (27-1); Speaker's Corner (29-1); Fire At Will (30-1); Hot Rod Charlie (34-1); Red Flag (35-1); Reinvestment Risk (35-1); Savile Row (36-1); Scarred (49-1); Ten for Ten (51-1); “All 3-Year-Old Fillies” (56-1); Midnight Bourbon (59-1); King Fury (60-1); Get Her Number (64-1); Sittin On Go (68-1); Dr. Shivel (72-1); Rombauer (88-1); Pickin' Time (96-1); and Super Stock (103-1).

The Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which features $2 Win and Exacta wagering, provide fans of Thoroughbred racing with opportunities to place bets on possible entrants in the $3 million Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (Grade I) at odds that could be far greater than those available on the day of the race. The 147th running of Kentucky Derby, America's greatest race and the first leg of the Triple Crown, is set for Saturday, May 1 at Churchill Downs.

There are no refunds in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager. Should Churchill Downs officials determine during the duration of this week's three-day pool that one of the wagering interests has experienced an injury, illness or other circumstance that would prevent the horse from participating in the Kentucky Derby, betting on the individual horse will be suspended immediately.

More information and real-time odds are available online at www.KentuckyDerby.com/FutureWager.

Dates for the remaining 2021 Kentucky Derby future pools are Feb. 12-14 (Pool 3), March 5-7 (Pool 4) and March 26- 28 (Pool 5). The lone Kentucky Oaks Future Wager will coincide with Pool 4 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager.

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Refreshed Ax Man Set For Sprint Return In Palos Verdes

REFRESHED AX MAN COMES BACK IN PALOS VERDES

Ax Man, who has not raced since last July when he was fourth of five behind stablemate Maximum Security in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles, returns this Saturday in the G3 Palos Verdes Stakes for 4-year-olds and up at six furlongs at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.

He also is nominated to next Sunday's $70,000 Clockers' Corner Stakes at six furlongs on turf. He was fourth in that race last year.

A 6-year-old gelded son of the Candy Ride stallion Misremembered, Ax Man has been firing bullets for his return, among them a five-furlong drill in 57.80 on Jan. 2 and another at that distance of 58.80 on Saturday.

Misremembered, trained by Bob Baffert for his wife, Jill, and George Jacobs, won the G1 Santa Anita Handicap in 2010.

“Ax Man lost interest, so I backed off and freshened him up,” Baffert said in explaining the absence of more than five months.

Owned by long-time Baffert clients Patti and Hal Earnhardt III, Ax Man, who was bred in Kentucky by Hal, has six wins from 14 career starts with earnings of $297,917.

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Street Sense Colt Takes Centerstage on Debut for ‘Rising Star’ Honors

Concert Tour (c, 3, Street Sense–Purse Strings, by Tapit) rolled home to an ultra-impressive debut score for Hall of Famer Bob Baffert for ‘TDN Rising Star’ honors at Santa Anita Friday.

The Gary and Mary West homebred’s worktab included a six-furlong bullet in 1:13 (1/11) in Arcadia Jan. 1 and was backed accordingly as the the even-money favorite while debuting with blinkers and Lasix.

He sat a looming presence in second in the early stages and tugged his way to the front under an absolute hammer lock three furlongs from home. The handsome dark bay hit the quarter pole with his ears up awaiting his cue from Joel Rosario, kicked for home in complete command with Rosario still sitting chilly and was never seriously asked in the stretch en route to an effortless 3 1/2-length decision. Mr. Impossible (Munnings) was second.

The final time for six furlongs was 1:10.40.

Baffert, of course, also trained Street Sense’s ‘Rising Star’ McKinzie to four Grade I victories and also saddled the Darley stallion’s comebacking Happier to a flashy debut score at Del Mar last summer.

Purse Strings, a $240,000 KEESEP yearling graduate, won one of 12 starts carrying the Wests’ hot pink-and-black silks. She had a colt by Lookin At Lucky in 2020 and was bred back to American Freedom.

This is the extended female family of 2008 champion 2-year-old filly Stardom Bound (Tapit), who brought $5.7 million at Fasig-Tipton November following her victory in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Gary and Mary West also bred graded winner Air Strike, another son of Street Sense out of a Tapit mare.

4th-Santa Anita, $61,000, Msw, 1-15, 3yo, 6f, 1:10.40, ft, 3 1/2 lengths.
CONCERT TOUR, c, 3, by Street Sense
1st Dam: Purse Strings, by Tapit
2nd Dam: My Red Porsche, by Mt. Livermore
3rd Dam: Wind Chime, by Marfa
Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $36,600. Click for the Equibase.com chart, VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
O-Gary & Mary West; B-Gary & Mary West Stables Inc. (KY); T-Bob Baffert.

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Jack Wolf Joins TDN Writers’ Room

Fresh off a dominant Grade I win by his Starlight Racing’s Charlatan (Speightstown) and a newly-minted ‘TDN Rising Star’ for his outfit, Jack Wolf joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday morning. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Wolf talked about the highs and lows of 2020 with his barn star, Thoroughbred aftercare and more.

Charlatan’s 3-year-old campaign featured dazzling victories but also a disqualification for a positive drug test in the GI Arkansas Derby and a long layoff that forced him to miss the GI Kentucky Derby. Luckily for Starlight, they also owned a piece of a colt named Authentic (Into Mischief) who carried the flag to a Derby victory and presumptive Horse of the Year trophy.

“It was a roller coaster,” Wolf said. “Initially we had three big horses in there of which Charlatan looked like he was probably going to be the best of the three with Eight Rings and Authentic. Then all this stuff happened. We went to Arkansas and got the disqualification there, then we had to remove a small chip [in his ankle] and that put everything up in the air. In any case, when you’ve got somebody like Bob Baffert adjusting to all these changes, I think we have a little bit of an advantage over everybody else. Then we had Authentic, who [because of the Derby postponement] had seven weeks between the Haskell and the Derby. I don’t think Authentic would have won the Derby if it was run May 2, and it all just worked out. Crazy business.”

Two weeks after Charlatan’s devastating GI Malibu S. win, 3-year-old filly Jouster (Noble Mission {GB}) kept Starlight spirits high with an 8 3/4-length maiden romp Sunday at Gulfstream to earn ‘Rising Star’ honors. The $360,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga buy was a beaten favorite in her first two starts on dirt before relishing the turf in Sunday’s graduation.

“I think we’ve got her on the right surface now,” Wolf said. “The field that she beat the other day, there were some pretty nice horses. I was talking to one of our partners last night and he asked if I thought we’d win the race. I was at the race. So, I’m not going to go down there without thinking we’re going to win the thing. But, in any case, I didn’t think we’d win by 8 3/4 lengths. She’ll probably run in an allowance race next and we’ll point for something like the Belmont Oaks and some of those longer turf races, in the summer.”

Elsewhere on the show, the writers reacted to the passing of Juddmonte Farms’ Khalid Abdullah, discussed the swift industry backlash to Eric Guillot in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment and looked forward to the beginning of Derby prep season. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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