Olympiad | Horse Racing Free Tips

Life Is Good Shows Speed, Heart in Whitney Triumph

Life Is Good (Into Mischief) caught a flier right out of the gate, strutted his stuff up front for six furlongs and fought off a pair of stubborn challengers through the Saratoga stretch to capture Saturday's $1-million GI Whitney S., punch his ticket to the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic and stick his nose in front of a crowded Horse of the Year race.

Running away to a 9 1/2-length debut romp and 'TDN Rising Star' honors for Bob Baffert in November of 2020 at Del Mar, the $525,000 Keeneland September graduate stamped himself as the early favorite for the GI Kentucky Derby after capturing the GIII Sham S. and GII San Felipe S., the latter by eight lengths for an eye-popping 107 Beyer. That would be his last start for Baffert, however, as an injury forced him off the Derby trail and he was transferred to Todd Pletcher with Baffert facing multiple suspensions for eventual Derby winner Medina Spirit (Protonico)'s drug positive.

A hard-fought neck second to eventual champion Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) upon return in a thrilling renewal of the GI H. Allen Jerkens S. here last summer, Life Is Good cruised to open-lengths victories in the GII Kelso H., GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. before fading late to finish fourth in the G1 Dubai World Cup. The bay returned no worse for the journey, however, a career-high 112 Beyer in a five-length conquest of the GII John A. Nerud S. July 2 at Belmont.

Backed to 85 cents on the dollar Saturday, Life Is Good could not have broken any better from his outside post and was in front in the blink of an eye. Kicking clear in a handful of strides, he was chased fairly closely by Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) and Olympiad (Speightstown) through a modest :23.64 quarter before turning on the jets down the backstretch and opening up by about four lengths past a half in :46.84. Hot Rod Charlie inched closer as Olympiad was asked for his best on the latter half of the far turn, and what looked like it would be a runaway score for Life Is Good suddenly became a horse race with Hot Rod Charlie and Happy Saver (Super Saver) eyeballing the favorite on either side as heads pointed for home.

Irad Ortiz, Jr., confident into the lane despite the creeping danger, quickly got to work on Life Is Good, who began to turn back the pair past mid-stretch. Shifting to the inside from a righty whip into Happy Saver's path while not quite interfering a furlong from home, Life Is Good held safe from there while still meandering a bit for a two-length success despite the valiant efforts of Happy Saver and Hot Rod Charlie, with the former narrowly edging the latter for second to complete a Todd Pletcher exacta. Olympiad was a one-paced fourth.

“He's a nice horse. He deserves all the credit,” said Ortiz. “When we got to the three-quarter pole and along the backside he changed leads and he just took off. Two jumps. He was strong. After that, I didn't want to fight too much with him. I was clear [in the stretch]. I looked and came [inside] a little bit. I know if he felt somebody that he would give me another run and more. I know he was coming back a little, the track is not that fast, so if he feels somebody he will fight. I know he will fight, so that is why I was looking.”

The win was the third in the Whitney in five years for Ortiz after scores aboard Improbable (City Zip) in 2020 and Diversify (Bellamy Road) in 2018.

“This means a lot,” he said. “It's a great race to win. I'm happy for the connections and the horse, too. He stayed and just never quit.”
“When you feel like you're bringing over the best horse, you worry about everything,” Pletcher, who moved within one of tying John M. Gaver, Sr. with his fourth Whitney win, added. “Today we got the rain, the deep track, the heat and humidity. All those things can be concerning, but he was able to overcome all of that and just show how brilliant he really is. To me it's the premier older horse race in the country outside of the Breeders' Cup Classic. So, it means a lot.”

Of his 14-1 runner-up finisher, Pletcher said, “Happy Saver ran super. He just kept finding. It looked like for a second like he was going to get right there. Johnny [Velazquez] said when he had to angle him off the rail, you could tell Life Is Good kind of found a little more. I was proud of his effort. We'll see what's next, we could wait for the Woodward or come back for the Jockey Club [Gold Cup]. We've got some options.”

Jockey Junior Alvarado said of Olympiad, who had his five-race winning streak snapped with a 9 1/4-length defeat, “He didn't run at all. He didn't run his race. Not even close. If he ran his race at least I'd say, 'We finished second.' But he didn't run his race. At the half-mile I knew I was in trouble. He wasn't traveling or picking it up like he normally does. I gave him a chance to regroup at the three-eighths and start picking it up again to see if he would start doing it and nothing. At that point I knew he wasn't showing up. No excuses for the track [conditions]. Good horses are supposed to handle the track and anything else. That is not the excuse. If he had a problem with the track he should at least try to the eighth pole, but he was done very early for me.”

Pedigree Notes:

The second foal to race out of Beach Walk, a $435,000 KEESEP yearling who went 0-for-5 in her career, Life Is Good is one of 111 stakes victors, 51 graded stakes winners and 11 Grade I conquerors for Into Mischief. His second dam Bonnie Blue Flag was runner-up in the 2010 GI Test S. and is a half-sister to MGISW Diamondrella (GB) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}). Beach Walk has a juvenile Blame filly named Living Good who worked a best-of-53 bullet from the gate in :47 flat Saturday at Ellis, a yearling colt by Candy Ride (Arg) and a full-brother to Life Is Good foaled Mar. 31. She returned to Into Mischief for 2023.

Saturday, Saratoga
WHITNEY S.-GI, $925,000, Saratoga, 8-6, 4yo/up, 1 1/8m, 1:48.97, gd.
1–LIFE IS GOOD, 124, c, 4, 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
'TDN Rising Star'. ($525,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-CHC Inc &
WinStar Farm LLC; B-Gary & Mary West Stables Inc. (KY);
T-Todd A. Pletcher; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr. $535,000. Lifetime Record:
10-8-1-0, $4,086,700. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Happy Saver, 118, h, 5, Super Saver–Happy Week, by
Distorted Humor. O/B-Wertheimer Et Frere (KY); T-Todd A.
Pletcher. $185,000. 'TDN Rising Star'.
3–Hot Rod Charlie, 124, c, 4, Oxbow–Indian Miss, by Indian
Charlie. ($17,000 Ylg '19 FTKFEB; $110,000 Ylg '19 FTKOCT).
O-Boat Racing, LLC, Gainesway Stable (Antony Beck),
Roadrunner Racing & William Strauss; B-Edward A. Cox (KY);
T-Doug F. O'Neill. $100,000.
Margins: 2, HD, 7 1/4. Odds: 0.85, 13.50, 4.00.
Also Ran: Olympiad, Zoomer. Scratched: Americanrevolution.
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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Big Day of Racing on ‘Tap’ Whitney Saturday

Hall of Famer Todd A. Pletcher, currently sitting in second place in the Saratoga trainer standings, will be locked and loaded in a pair of Grade I events at the Spa Saturday, led by the 'Win and You're In' GI Whitney S.

With the unbeaten sensation and 'TDN Rising Star' Flightline (Tapit) awaiting the GI TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar Sept. 3, a pair of New York-based heavyweights in the handicap division will throw down in the 12-race card's feature.

The uber-talented 'TDN Rising Star' Life Is Good (Into Mischief), one of three entered by the aforementioned three-time Whitney-winning conditioner, will meet the streaking GII Stephen Foster S. winner Olympiad (Speightstown) in the six-horse field.

A tiring fourth over a well-documented deep surface in the G1 Dubai World Cup, GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. winner Life Is Good returned to his brilliant self with a jaw-dropping victory in the GII John A. Nerud S. sprinting downstate last month.

“He's got so much natural speed and such a high-cruising speed,” said Pletcher, who has also entered GISWs Americanrevolution (Constitution) and 'TDN Rising Star' Happy Saver (Super Saver). “His ability to carry it over a distance of ground is what makes him so unique and so successful.”

Pletcher will also be well-represented by another dangerous trio, topped by 5-2 morning-line favorite and 'TDN Rising Star' Annapolis (War Front), in the GI Caesars Saratoga Derby Invitational. The visually impressive Manila S. winner will be joined by stablemates 'TDN Rising Star' Emmanuel (More Than Ready), winner of the GII Pennine Ridge S. in his grass debut, and Grand Sonata (Medaglia d'Oro), in the stacked field of 11.

The Saratoga Derby has also attracted the top six finishers from the GI Caesars Belmont Derby Invitational S.–Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway), Nations Pride (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), Stone Age (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), Grand Sonata, Royal Patronage (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) and Sy Dog (Slumber {GB}).

“We were really on the fence between the Manila and the Belmont Derby,” Pletcher said of Annapolis. “But with only one start under his belt [since a layoff], we felt it made sense to come back and get another race into him before stretching him out. He's trained super into this.”

Saturday's Whitney program also includes the GI Longines Test S., headlined by GI Acorn S. heroine and 2-5 morning-line favorite Matareya (Pioneerof the Nile); and the GII Glens Falls S., topped by GISW and the race's defending winner War Like Goddess (English Channel).

Other graded action across the country Saturday includes: Shedaresthedevil (Daredevil) back to defend her title in the GI 'Win and You're In' Clement L. Hirsch S. at Del Mar; the GIII West Virginia Governor's S. and GIII West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer; and the GIII Ontario Colleen S. at Woodbine.

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Life is Good for Pletcher Heading into the Whitney

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – At this time last year, trainer Todd Pletcher and his staff were getting to know Life Is Good (Into Mischief). Some 400 days after he arrived and with four wins from six races, the bay colt is an unquestioned standout in Pletcher's powerful and deep stable.

Up next for Life Is Good in a season that could yield an Eclipse Award and possibly even a Horse of the Year title is the $1-million GI Whitney S. Saturday at Saratoga Race Course. The historic Whitney, first run in 1928 as a memorial to Payne Whitney, who had died the previous year, has long been the pre-eminent race for older horses on the Saratoga schedule. Life Is Good heads the group of three horses that the Hall of Fame trainer will enter Wednesday morning and is likely to be the favorite in the nine-furlong contest. Pletcher is also entering Happy Saver (Super Saver) and Americanrevolution (Constitution), but acknowledged that Americanrevolution is not a lock to be in the race.

At the start of the meet, Pletcher answered a question about the 4-year-old's breeze by describing Life Is Good as an elite-level Thoroughbred.

“I think people who clock horses and watch a lot of horses breeze, we can appreciate just how special he is,” Pletcher said. “You just don't see too many do that and over the years, we'll kind of identify some horses as what we call 'one-percenters.' You know, the top one percenters. And he's kind of in the top 1% of the 1%.”

For Pletcher, that's pretty much gushing praise.

“He's just a super-talented horse,” Pletcher said this week. “He's so consistent, not only in his racing, but his training. Just loves what he does. He comes out every day with enthusiasm. Every breeze is good. Seems to be coming up to this race as good as any since we've got him.”

Since being transferred by his co-owners WinStar Farm and China Horse Club from trainer Bob Baffert to Pletcher early last summer, Life Is Good has won the GII Kelso, the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational and the GII John A. Nerud. He was second by a neck to champion Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) in the GI H. Allen Jerkens in his debut for Pletcher and ended up fourth after leading much of the way in the G1 Dubai World Cup.

The Whitney is expected to draw the Bill Mott-trained Olympiad (Speightstown), winner of all five of his starts this year, and Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), who has a pair of Grade I victories on his resume and has earned over $5 million.

“Good horses,” Pletcher said. “Hot Rod Charlie's a warrior. He's run some top-class races and Olympiad has, too. It's just the kind of field you'd expect you have to contend against in the Whitney.”

Life Is Good, bred by Gary and Mary West, was purchased for $525,000 as a 2019 Keeneland yearling. He easily won his only start as a 2-year-old and opened his 3-year-old campaign with victories in the GIII Sham and the GII San Felipe. An injury knocked him off the Triple Crown trail in March and he was moved to Pletcher's care when he resumed training in June.

Considering his strong body of work, Pletcher said it was hard to pick out one start as Life Is Good's best performance.

“I think all of his races have in some ways been impressive, even in Dubai, when he's running in quicksand,” he said. “But I thought the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile was awfully impressive. He just basically took it to them from the first step, and to carve out fractions like he did, and then win convincingly.”

From that high mark to end 2021, Pletcher said there have been more stellar outings this season.

“He came back in the Pegasus and it kind of looked like a race with two horses, with Knicks Go (Paynter)–similar style, kind of free-running,” Pletcher said. “We were committed to allowing our horse to run his race. He kind of broke well and took it to him. I thought both of those races were super-impressive. And then even the Nerud last time. Speaker's Corner (Street Sense) is coming off some big races and same thing, he just kind of took it to him. He's got so much natural speed and such a high- cruising speed and his ability to carry it over a distance of ground is what makes him so unique and so successful.”

Since winning the seven-furlong Nerud on July 2, Life is Good has breezed three times on the main track at Saratoga. On Saturday, he worked four furlongs in :48.25 under exercise rider Amelia Green. It was the eighth-fastest of 98 works at the distance.

Pletcher said even though Life Is Good is eager in the mornings, it is not correct to call him an easy horse to train.

“It takes a skilled rider and Amelia has done a great job with him,” Pletcher said. “She has been able to get him to relax some. He enjoys his training. If he were allowed to, he would over do it.”

WinStar and China Horse Club also own Americanrevolution, winner of the GI Cigar Mile in December. Pletcher said he definitely will be entered in the Whitney, but called him an insurance policy.

“You never know what can happen and have an off day,” he said. “By having another horse in there gives you some added security that way.”

Wertheimer and Frere's Happy Saver will start, Pletcher said. Never worse than third in 10 career starts, Happy Saver has been the runner-up in four-straight races, three of them Grade I events.

“He's a Grade I-winning horse and the options were pretty much to run him in the Alydar,” Pletcher said. “For a Grade I winner to drop down in class like that we didn't really feel like it would hold much significance. If the top horses didn't fire for some reason or got battled a bit in a speed duel you never know what could happen.”

Most of the attention in the Whitney at the “Graveyard of Favorites” will be on Life Is Good and whether he can give Pletcher his fourth victory in the race and first since Cross Traffic in 2013.

“He's a very willing horse every day,” Pletcher said. “Very generous. He wants to compete. If he sees a horse on the racetrack while he's galloping his natural instinct is he wants to engage that horse and pass him. It's great to have that, but we also don't want him to overachieve on a daily basis. That's what we tried to focus on, trying to keep him as settled and relaxed as we can and yet allow him to be himself.”

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Olympiad Latest Success From Emory Hamilton’s Foundation Mare

Breeder Emory Alexander Hamilton is looking forward to her trip to Saratoga this weekend to cheer on the talented Olympiad (Speightstown) in what looks to be an ultra-competitive edition of the GI Whitney S.

“He has done so well; it's really amazing,” Hamilton said enthusiastically. “The Whitney is going to be a tough race. There are some really good horses going there, but Bill Mott and his owners have been patient with him and it has paid off.”

Hamilton, who looks forward to drawing out the mating plans for her 10-mare broodmare band every year, said that the cross that produced four-time graded stakes-winning Olympiad was an easy pick. She sent Olympiad's dam Tokyo Time (Medaglia d'Oro), a third-generation homebred for the accomplished breeder, to Speightstown in the hopes of injecting a bit of speed into the pedigree of the resulting foal.

Olympiad was foaled in Kentucky at Middlebrook Farm, which is owned by Hamilton's sister Helen Alexander, and while he wasn't dropping jaws from the beginning, he quickly started to progress as he matured and went through the sales prepping program at Gainesway Farm as a yearling.

“As a foal he was nice, but he wasn't like, 'wow,'” Hamilton admitted. “Then he started to develop as a yearling. Especially in the last three months before the sale, he started to look athletic, he walked really well, and the rest is history.”

At the 2019 Keeneland September Sale, the bay colt sold for $700,000 to Solis/Litt Bloodstock. Lightly raced at two and three, this year Olympiad has maintained a perfect five-for-five campaign for owners Grandview Equine, Cheyenne Stable and LNJ Foxwoods. The 4-year-old's most recent definitive victory in the GII Stephen Foster S. punched his ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

Olympiad is the latest success in a long line of top-level racehorses over the past four decades to arise from Hamilton's fruitful breeding program that was built off her foundation mare Too Chic (Blushing Groom).

Bred by Hamilton's family's legendary King Ranch, Too Chic went through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July Yearling Sale in 1980.

“I was determined to have her,” Hamilton recalled. “She was not huge as a yearling, but she was very athletic looking. She was a bit crooked, but I had the benefit of knowing the family. She was a descendent of the French mare Monade (Klairon), who my grandfather had bought for King Ranch. Monade was a good size, but she was not perfect physically and she was a champion.”

Hamilton's instincts about her $100,000 purchase proved correct when Too Chic raced to Grade I success, but the true worth of the daughter of Blushing Groom was realized later on in her breeding career.

From 11 foals, Too Chic produced eight winners led by Chic Shirine and Queena, both Grade I-winning daughters of Mr. Prospector that went on to be prolific producers for Hamilton.

Queena, herself a champion on the racetrack, was responsible for Grade I winner and sire Brahms (Danzig) as well as graded stakes winner and producer La Reina (A. P. Indy).

Olympiad as a yearling at the Keeneland September Sale | Keeneland

Chic Shirine produced a pair of Grade II winners and four graded stakes producers. Among those daughters, Flying Passage (A.P. Indy) is the dam of MGSW Hungry Island (More Than Ready), one of Hamilton's top earners on the racetrack; GSW Soaring Empire (Empire Maker); Flying Dixie (Dixieland Band), the dam of Grade I-winning millionaire and sire Preservationist; and Tokyo Time, the dam of Olympiad.

Like many of Hamilton's race fillies in recent years, Tokyo Time was trained by Shug McGaughey. She won four starts on the turf and ran second in the 2013 GIII Herecomesthebride S.

After producing Olympiad, Tokyo Time is also responsible for a 3-year-old filly named Friendship Road (Quality Road) who has made three starts for Hamilton and McGaughey this year, as well as a juvenile filly by War Front who brought $450,000 at last year's Keeneland September Sale and a yearling colt by American Pharoah that is pointing for the sales ring this fall. While the mare did not produce a foal this year, Hamilton reported that Tokyo Time is now carrying a full-sister to Olympiad.

Hamilton has maintained the same philosophy over the decades of selling her colts and retaining almost all of her fillies to race and eventually join her boutique broodmare band.

A few of her most recent successes on the racetrack include Texian (Quality Road), who hails from the Queena family line and broke her maiden at Laurel Park in June, as well as two daughters of Hungry Island. Hungry Island's first foal Hungry Kitten (Kitten's Joy) made three trips to the winner's circle and placed in a stake at Belmont in 2020. The mare's second filly Flanigan's Cove (Kitten's Joy) broke her maiden at Keeneland last fall as a 3-year-old for McGaughey and is currently training at Saratoga.

As Hamilton explains, one of the keys to her program after raising generations of influential producers has been to focus on maintaining the quality of her stock.

“It's about trying to protect your mares when you breed them and figuring out the best stallion [for them] as best you can,” she said. “You're not going to knock it out of the park every time, but if you have a stakes winners, that's really exciting. That's what I've tried to do is protect the family and send the fillies to trainers I like.”

As each branch of Too Chic's family continues to blossom year after year, the blue hen mare has become even more meaningful to Hamilton.

“My favorite horse of all time, by far, is Too Chic,” she said, “Everything comes from her that I've owned and it's been a very prolific family, but you also have to get really lucky. It's hard to breed horses, especially in the first couple of matings before you know what kind of foals the mare might have. That's where a lot of luck comes in and you just try to breed them to something good in order to keep the quality up.”

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