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Life Is Good Runs Off The Screen In Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile

It's been a big Saturday so far for jockey Irad Oritz, Jr., who recorded his second straight Breeders' Cup victory in just the third World Championships race of the card. Following his frontrunning triumph in the Turf Sprint aboard Wesley Ward's Golden Pal, Ortiz followed the same playbook to pilot WinStar Farm and China Horse Club's Life Is Good to the winner's circle in the Dirt Mile.

“I had a perfect trip,” Ortiz said. “He broke out of there running, he relaxed for me. I wasn't worried about those other runners early in the race, because I knew he was so fast. When we got to the quarter pole, he re-broke for me. What a nice horse to ride.”

The Todd Pletcher-trained colt more than lived up to his 3-5 odds: The 3-year-old son of Into Mischief simply ran his rivals into the ground, grabbing the lead at the start and dominating the race throughout to clock a final time of 1:34.12 over Del Mar's fast main track. He defeated his closest rival, Ginobili (4-1), by 5 3/4 lengths, while Restrainedvengence (40-1) checked in third.

“We were hoping for that, expecting that based on the way that he's been training, but it's always great to see it actually happen,” said Pletcher. “He took it to them. Just too much horse.”

The win is Pletcher's second in the Dirt Mile, following a victory with Liam's Map in 2015, and the Hall of Fame conditioner's 12th Breeders' Cup victory overall. It was Ortiz's third Breeders' Cup win of 2021, and his 14th overall.

Previously trained by the embattled Bob Baffert, Life is Good was moved across the country to Pletcher's barn after an injury took him off the Kentucky Derby trail in March. He returned in late August to run second to Jackie's Warrior in the G1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes at Saratoga, then got back in the winner's circle with an easy romp in the G2 Kelso on Sept. 25.

Though the pair of Japanese-trained entrants, Pingxiang and Jasper Prince, were both expected to show early speed, Ortiz sent Life Is Good hard out of the starting gates and made the lead before the clubhouse turn. Under mild pressure from Eight Rings, Life Is Good set fractions of :21.88 and :44.94 with his ears pricked, making it look easy.

Eight Rings dropped back a bit around the far turn as Ginobili took up the challenge on his outside. Life Is Good maintained an advantage of just over a length as he ticked off six furlongs in 1:08.96, then simply out-ran his rivals down the stretch. Ginobili kept on well to maintain second, hitting the wire 5 3/4 lengths behind the winner, while Restrainedvengence closed from the rear of the field to finish three-quarters of a length back in third. Eight Rings held on to be fourth, while Silver State was fifth.

Bred in Kentucky by Gary and Mary West, Life Is Good is out of the placed Distorted Humor mare Beach Walk. He was a $525,000 purchase at the Keeneland September sale, and was sent to Baffert's barn in Southern California for the early part of his career. Life Is Good won impressively on debut in late November at Del Mar, then won the G3 Sham and the G2 San Felipe before his injury.

With a second and two more wins to his name since his transfer to Pletcher's care, Life Is Good has amassed a total of five wins from six starts with earnings of $1,059,200.

Quotes from other connections:

Trainer Richard Baltas (Ginobili, second) – “We just ran into a better horse. We got a great trip and it looked around the turn that we were making a move and we're going to win it, but Life Is Good kicked clear. I mean, I'm pretty happy. I would be happier if we'd had won it, but Ginobili ran a great race.”

Jockey Drayden Van Dyke (Ginobili, second) – “With how fast they we were going, I thought it was going to set up perfectly for us. But the winner had another gear when we got to him but I am super happy with Ginobili. It was the kind of trip that we wanted and we got it. We were just second best today.”

Trainer Val Brinkerhoff (Restrainedvengence, third) – “He ran very good. We kind of got away bad. We thought we would be back, but not that far. I think if we had a little bit better start we might have gotten second. I don't think we would have beaten the winner. He ran a heck of a race.”

Jockey Edwin Maldonado (Restrainedvengence, third) – “My horse ran well and I'm happy we ran third. The winner was just too good.”

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Life is Good Never Looks Back in Dominant Dirt Mile Performance

In what might have been the easiest of victories on Saturday's championship card–or maybe he's just so good he simply made it look that way–'TDN Rising Star' and 3-5 favorite Life Is Good (Into Mischief) captured the GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. The bay led every step of the way through blazing fractions straight into the winner's circle, with his only loss in six career starts a neck in arrears of GI Sprint favorite Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music).

Silver State (Hard Spun), the GI Hill 'n' Dale Met Mile hero who figured to be one the biggest nemesis for Life Is Good in the Dirt Mile, stumbled leaving the gate. Restrainedvengence (Hold Me Back) didn't break cleanly either, tossing his head and hesitating ever so briefly, but Life Is Good sailed out of his stall smoothly. Sandwiched early between Japanese runners Pingxiang (Speightstown) and Jasper Prince (Violence), he cleared the field into the first turn, blazing through splits of :21.88, :44.94, and 1:08.76. All the while, Life Is Good looked to be doing it easy with rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. sitting almost motionless. Horse for the course Ginobili (Munnings) chased him on the turn, but Life Is Good was just too good. Ortiz shook him up slightly, throwing a few crosses and shaking the whip at him before keeping his mind on business with one right-handed tap of the crop, and the pair coasted under the wire as much-the-best 5 3/4-length victors. They covered the two-turn mile in 1:34.12. Ginobili and Restrainedvengence rounded out the trifecta.

“I had a perfect trip,” said Ortiz, Jr. “He broke out of there running, he relaxed for me. I wasn't worried about those other runners early in the race, because I knew he was so fast. When we got to the quarter pole, he re-broke for me. What a nice horse to ride.”

Life Is Good's Dirt Mile was the 14th Breeders' Cup win for Ortiz and the 12th for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Both had previously won the Dirt Mile, Ortiz in 2019 with Spun to Run (Hard Spun) and Pletcher with Liam's Map (Unbridled's Song) in 2015.

“We were hoping for that, expecting that based on the way that he's been training, but it's always great to see it actually happen,” said Pletcher. “He took it to them. Just too much horse.”

Continued Pletcher, “We were anticipating a good performance or an exceptional performance, just it's rare that you have a horse train as well as this horse does and breeze as impressively as he does and do everything as effortlessly and easily as he is capable of. So we were hoping for a big effort. We felt like he was sitting on a big effort and then you just hope everything goes smoothly with the ship and settling in in new surroundings and get a clean break and all the classic things that you need to go right for him to show his talent.”

Life Is Good has necessitated patience throughout his career, but how beautifully it has paid off for his connections. The 3-year-old–the only sophomore in the Dirt Mile field–debuted Nov. 22 over this track last year for trainer Bob Baffert shortly after the barn's GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner and eventual Horse of the Year Authentic (Into Mischief) was retired to stud. Life Is Good quickly stepped in with the expectation of filling Authentic's shoes, crushing his debut 6 1/2-furlong maiden special weight field by 9 1/2 lengths, earning his 'Rising Star' designation, and quickly setting tongues wagging regarding his GI Kentucky Derby chances. His next two starts, the Jan. 2 GIII Sham S. and the Mar. 6 GII San Felipe S., with 101 and 107 Beyers, respectively, did nothing to discourage the Derby talk. Before the last round of major preps, he was tied on the Derby leaderboard with 60 qualifying points and had beaten then-stablemate and eventual Derby first-place finisher Medina Spirit (Protonico) in both the Sham and San Felipe. Life was good in the Life Is Good camp.

Then, as has been well documented, much went awry. Life Is Good came out of a 1:11 2/5 six-panel work (1/6) at Santa Anita Mar. 20 with a slight injury to a hind leg. Baffert declared him off the Derby trail and said he'd get at least 60 days off while undergoing a medical evaluation. An ankle chip was discovered and surgery to remove it followed. Baffert won the Derby with Medina Spirit only to be on the brink of losing it due to a betamethasone positive. A slew of racetrack bans for Baffert followed. Life Is Good returned to the races just over five months after that Santa Anita work, but not to Baffert's barn.

When Life Is Good returned to the entry box, it was for Pletcher, this time on the East Coast. Pletcher knew what he had in Life Is Good and brought the then-unbeaten colt back in an extremely ambitious spot few others would have dared to enter off such a layoff, the Aug. 28 GI H. Allen Jerkens S. at Saratoga. In an extremely game effort, Life Is Good got run down by a neck to Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) in what remains his only career defeat. The Sept. 25 GII Kelso H. at the same distance as the Dirt Mile followed with Life Is Good running like the 1-20 choice he was, giving the impression of a public workout or at least a Sunday stroll.

“He's one of [the] classic rare horses that you could consider three different races on the card,” said Pletcher after the Dirt Mile. “Who knows, he might even grass on top of that. But he's just, he's super fast, but what we have seen from him in his training is he has the ability to go fast and keep going and I think that's what everyone was able to see today.”

WinStar president and CEO Elliott Walden, representing co-owners WinStar and CHC Inc., indicated after the race that Life Is Good is expected to have a 2022 campaign.

Pedigree Notes:
In what is becoming a familiar refrain, Spendthrift Farm's super-sire Into Mischief is the sire of the winner. Life Is Good's Dirt Mile is the sixth Breeders' Cup win for the son of Harlan's Holiday, follwing Goldencents in back-to-back Dirt Miles in 2013-14, Covfefe in the 2019 Filly & Mare Sprint, Gamine in the 2020 Filly & Mare Sprint, and Authentic in last year's Classic. Breeders' Cup success aside, from 10 crops of racing age, Into Mischief has 102 Northern Hemisphere-bred black-type winners, 44 of which are graded winners.

Recently pensioned Distorted Humor is the broodmare sire of Life Is Good, with black-type winners out of his daughters numbering 115. When his daughters have been matched with Into Mischief, they've come up with not only Life Is Good, but also MGISW and current third-leading freshman sire Practical Joke, 2021 MGSW Fulsome, and three other stakes winners.

Life Is Good, who was a $525,000 Keeneland September yearling, is Beach Walk's second foal. Her yearling filly is by Blame, her 2021 colt is by Candy Ride (Arg), and she was bred back to Into Mischief. Her dam is SW Bonnie Blue Flag (Mineshaft), who placed in both the 2010 GI Test S. and GI Prioress S. Bonnie Blue Flag is a half to MGISW Diamondrella (GB) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}). She sold at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky sale for $1.5 million, but reappeared at the 2019 Keeneland November sale for just $15,000.

Saturday, Del Mar
BIG ASS FANS BREEDERS' CUP DIRT MILE-GI, $900,000, Del Mar, 11-6, 3yo/up, 1m, 1:34.12, ft.
1–LIFE IS GOOD, 123, c, 3, by Into Mischief
1st Dam: Beach Walk, by Distorted Humor
2nd Dam: Bonnie Blue Flag, by Mineshaft
3rd Dam: Tap Your Feet, by Dixieland Band
1ST GRADE I WIN. ($525,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-CHC Inc. and
WinStar Farm LLC; B-Gary & Mary West Stables Inc. (KY);
T-Todd A. Pletcher; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr. $520,000. Lifetime Record:
6-5-1-0, $1,059,200. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Ginobili, 126, g, 4, Munnings–Find the Humor, by Sharp
Humor. ($35,000 Ylg '18 KEESEP). O-Slam Dunk Racing, Richard
Baltas, Jerry McClanahan and Michael Nentwig; B-Hinkle
Farms (KY); T-Richard Baltas. $170,000.
3–Restrainedvengence, 126, g, 6, Hold Me Back–
Cupids Revenge, by Red Ransom. ($67,000 Ylg '16 KEESEP).
O-Kelly Brinkerhoff and Bob Grayson, Jr.; B-Westwind Farms
(KY); T-Val Brinkerhoff. $90,000.
Margins: 5 3/4, 3/4, NK. Odds: 0.70, 4.40, 40.60.
Also Ran: Eight Rings, Silver State, Snapper Sinclair, Pingxiang, Jasper Prince.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Racing Insights for Saturday, Nov. 6

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

8th-GP, $55K, Msw, 2yo, 7f, 4:02 p.m. ET
Some two years after his half-brother Spun to Run (Hard Spun) dominated the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, Sabana Farm homebred Practical Way (Practical Joke) makes his debut for trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. Also responsible for stakes winner Tap It All (Tapizar), SW dam Yawkey Way (Grand Slam) sold to Gainesway and Whisper Hill Farm for $600,000 last Keeneland November while carrying a full brother to Spun to Run. Joseph will also send out A. P.'s Secret (Cupid), a $95,000 FTKSEL yearling to $150,000 OBSAPR 2-year-old off a :10 2/5 breeze. He is a half to the precocious and stakes-placed Flying Aletha (Tiznow) and a grandson of MSW/MGSP Afleet Deceit (Northern Afleet). TJCIS PPs

8th-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6 1/2f, 6:05 p.m. ET
Stonestreet Stables LLC's $600,000 Keeneland September 2020 acquisition Bombdiggity (Into Mischief) makes her first start here on behalf of conditioner Steve Asmussen. The daughter of stakes-placed Checkupfromzneckup (Dixie Union) is a half to five-for-five 'TDN Rising Star' Carribean Caper (Speightstown), who was most recently a six-length winner of the GIII Dogwood S. here Sept. 25; and to a Tapit yearling filly who sold for $990,000 at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga. She hails from the female family of A.P. Indy, et al.

The Brad Cox barn will send out a pair of well-related newcomers of its own. Godolphin homebred Hidden Wonder (Curlin) was produced by a Tapit half-sister to champion 3-year-old and late Darley stallion Bernardini (A.P. Indy). Savo Island (Quality Road), meanwhile, was a $220,000 KEESEP RNA who will carry the colors of Qatar Racing. She is a full-sister to Grade I-winning juvenile and freshman sire Klimt. MSP dam Inventive Dixie Union) sold for $380,000 at KEENOV '19 carrying a City of Light (Quality Road) colt who subsequently brought $435,000 this Keeneland September from the BSW/Crow Colts Group for which Cox will train. Savo Island is bred on the extremely potent Quality Road–Dixie Union cross also responsible for the likes of champion 2-year-old filly Caledonia Road and GISW Salty.

Lady Jeopardy (Liam's Map) was a productive pinhook, costing just $17,000 at KEESEP but $230,000 at OBS June after a :21 2/5 breeze. Eclipsed (Exaggerator) resurfaces after finishing second to subsequent Debutante S. heroine Behave Virginia (Unified) in a late May MSW here. That event also produced last weekend's Rags to Riches S. romper Sandstone (Street Sense). TJCIS PPs

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Clarkland’s Nancy Mitchell Dies at 83

Nancy Mitchell of Clarkland Farm died peacefully Nov. 3 at the Kentucky homestead that has been in her family since 1774. She was 83.

Blood-Horse first reported Mitchell's passing. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations in Mitchell's honor to the Alzheimer's Association or Central Kentucky Riding for Hope.

Running Clarkland for nearly a half-century alongside her husband, Fred, and daughter, Marty Buckner, Nancy and the team have been major consignors at Kentucky sales for decades.

Clarkland has bred, raised and sold many top-class runners, including the two-time champion sprinter Housebuster, the champion older mare North Sider, and the English champion 2-year old Wind and Wuthering.

But it was the 2006 buy of a mare called Leslie's Lady for $100,000 who was carrying a foal by Orientate at the Keeneland November sale that turned out to be Clarkland's most memorable bloodstock move during the Mitchells' tenure.

“She is the best mare we will probably ever have,” Fred Mitchell told TDN in 2018. “Nancy picked her out.”

Although Leslie's Lady's top accomplishment on the racetrack was winning a stakes at Hoosier Park and none of her four foals were standouts at the time, the colt she produced in 2005, the year before Clarkland purchased her, turned into the Grade I winner and now-prolific stallion Into Mischief.

Leslie's Lady in 2010 produced four-time Eclipse Award winner and three-time Breeders' Cup heroine Beholder. In 2015, she foaled Mendelssohn, who topped the 2016 Keeneland September sale at $3 million and later won the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and G2 UAE Derby.

Leslie's Lady's last foal to be offered at auction, America's Joy, set a new price record for a filly when she hammered for $8.2 million at the 2019 KEESEP sale. Unraced, the 3-year-old was euthanized in August 2021 after suffering a career-ending injury in a workout.

Now 25, Leslie's Lady was retired from breeding this past spring. Her penultimate foal, Marr Time (Not This Time), was retained to race by Clarkland, and upon winning her debut at Keeneland Oct. 28, she was named a 'TDN Rising Star'.

Marr Time was named with a nod to Nancy Mitchell's ancestor, John Wesley Marr.

“He was an old guy that never changed his clocks,” Fred Mitchell told TDN back in June. “He stayed on Central Standard Time year-round. He would say, 'When the sun changes and my horses and I know that the time changed, I'll change. But not 'til then.'”

Nancy Mitchell grew up at Clarkland. The 400-acre farm northeast of Lexington had been granted to her ancestor, Lt. James Clark, for his service in the mid-18th Century French and Indian War. The present ownership of Clarkland is descended from James Clark to Nancy Mitchell and two sisters.

In addition to success as breeders and sales consignors, Clarkland has prided itself in being good stewards of the land, being among the Kentucky Thoroughbred farms that have joined in the Development Rights Program that preserves Bluegrass farmland.

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