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Team Puerto Rico Wins World Jockey Challenge

Indiana Grand Racing & Casino hosted the seventh annual World Jockey Challenge Thursday with the team of seven jockeys representing Puerto Rico getting the win over a total of nine countries in the competition. Team Mexico was the runner-up while Team United States came in third.

A special winner's circle presentation honored Team Puerto Rico with the World Jockey Challenge trophy. The trophy is on display in the grandstand.

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KEE June Digital Sale Catalog Online

The catalog for the June Digital Sale, which takes place June 29, now available at www.Keenelanddigital.com. Online bidding opens at 10 a.m. ET will begin to close that day at 2 p.m.

Keeneland encourages buyers to register for an account in the Keeneland Digital Sales Ring prior to June 29 in order to log into the Keeneland Digital Sales Ring. The universal login applies to both the Sales Portal and the Digital Sales Ring.

Visit portal.keeneland.com and create an account or log in to the existing Keeneland Sales Portal Account
Upon sign in, click MY ACCOUNT and review current credit limit. Request credit as needed. We recommend you do this prior to the sale day
Click the DIGITAL SALES RING button in the top right corner to automatically access and participate in the Digital Sale.

Buyers have two options for bidding on the day of the sale:

Direct Bid manually (bid as you go).
Max Bid – establishes a top price – the software will automatically bid on your behalf as you are outbid up to your maximum.

For more information, contact Dean Roethemeier at droethemeier@keeneland.com, Kyle Wilson at kwilson@keeneland.com or Chip McGaughey at cmcgaughey@keeneland.com.

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Happy Valley Farm’s Gary Wolfson Passes Away

Gary Wolfson, the part-owner of Happy Valley Farm, has passed away after a brief illness. He was 73 and died from a rare form of stomach cancer.

The son of Louis Wolfson, who owned 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed along with his wife, Patrice, Gary Wolfson teamed up with brother Steve and launched Happy Valley Farm in the early seventies. Happy Valley had its best run in the 1980s when, despite having a limited number of horses, it could often be found on the list of leading owners.

The Wolfsons' best horse may have been Prismatical, who won the 1981 GI Alabama S. She also captured the GII Long Look S. and the GII Monmouth Oaks. They also won the GI Test S. in 1988 with Fara's Team, the 1982 GIII Bernard Baruch with Pair of Deuces and a trio of graded stakes with Talakeno.

“It was a magical time for us,” Steve Wolfson said. “The neatest thing was to go to Saratoga and people would see us and say 'There they are, Happy Valley Farm's 1 and 1A.' Gary and I had a great relationship. He will be sorely missed by those who knew him.”

Steve Wolfson said the cancer diagnosis was shocking.

“Gary was one of the healthiest people I knew,” he said. “He walked every day and had a really good lifestyle. No smoking, no drinking, he was a health nut. He called me Apr. 28 and said that he had been having terrible pains. They thought it was a hernia, but it turned out to be cancer. My wife is a Sloan Kettering survivor for 16 years and Gary wanted to know if we could get him into Sloan Kettering. His doctor had diagnosed it as stage 4 cancer in the stomach. We got him into Sloan Kettering, but it was just too late. It all happened so quickly.”

Gary Wolfson was a graduate of Northwestern University and, according to his brother, turned down Harvard because he wanted to study journalism at Northwestern.

Gary Wolfson had been living in California and worked as a consultant with ties to China.

The survivors also include another brother, former trainer Marty Wolfson.

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Life Is Good to Pletcher, Returns to Worktab

by Bill Finley and Steve Sherack

Undefeated and considered one of the most promising horses in the sport, Life Is Good (Into Mischief) will soon join the Todd Pletcher stable. He had been trained by Bob Baffert, who has lost a number of top horses due to his ongoing problems involving the Medina Spirit (Protonico) positive in the GI Kentucky Derby for betamethasone.

After winning the GII San Felipe S., Mar. 6 at Santa Anita, Life Is Good was sidelined and ruled out of the Triple Crown races after coming down with a hind-end injury, which required surgery to remove a chip in his ankle. He worked three furlongs Thursday morning at Keeneland in :37 flat.

Elliott Walden, the president and CEO of WinStar Farm, the co-owner of Life Is Good, confirmed the trainer switch.

“Life is Good worked this a.m. with our farm trainer, Destin Heath at Keeneland,” Walden said via text. “His team has done a wonderful job getting him back to the work tab. He went :37 and out in :49 2/5. The plan is to ship to Todd Pletcher in the coming weeks with a possibility of running in New York later this year. With the ban on Bob in Kentucky and New York right now, our opportunities are limited. We will continue to evaluate the situation with Bob and appreciate everything he has done with Life is Good.”

One landing spot for Life Is Good could be the GI Runhappy Travers S. Aug. 28 in Saratoga. Baffert has been banned by the New York Racing Association and, currently, is not able to run in New York or stable there. He has, however, filed a suit against NYRA seeking a stay that would allow him to compete at the NYRA tracks.

Walden declined to answer any other questions regarding WinStar's relationship with Baffert.

WinStar has also moved Country Grammer (Tonalist) from the Baffert barn to the Pletcher stable. The winner of the GI Hollywood Gold Cup in his last start, he may go next in the GII Suburban H. at Belmont. Still another WinStar-owned stakes horse has been moved out of the Baffert barn. Crystal Ball (Malibu Moon) will make her debut Saturday for trainer Rodolphe Brisset in the Lady Jacqueline S. at Thistledown. Spendthrift Farm has also reportedly moved its horses out of the Baffert barn. And Hozier (Pioneerof the Nile) will make his debut Saturday in the GIII Ohio Derby for Brisset after campaigning for Baffert. He is owned by the partnership of SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Golconda Stable, Siena Farm LLC and Robert Masterson.

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