WinStar Farm, First Go Racing, and CHC Inc’s The Good Life rolled to a powerful front-running victory in the $300,000 Hopeful Stakes (G1) at Saratoga on Sunday, Sept. 6, becoming the first Grade 1 winner for his freshman sire Life Is Good.
Ridden by Manny Franco for trainer Brad Cox, the bay colt established the front just after the start of the seven-furlong fixture. Traveling in-hand throughout, The Good Life shook off Mystrix through the far turn while being patiently handled by Franco and surged clear through the lane to win as much the best by four lengths under the wire.
Cox said he was pleased with the effort from The Good Life who is now undefeated in two outings.
“At the three and a half, I was just kind of watching everybody else,” Cox said. “Obviously, we were on the lead, everybody looked like they were kind of knuckling down on their horse, so I thought that was a good sign. Turning for home, looked like we had some horse, and he responded down the stretch.”
Franco said of precocious colt’s facile win, “We knew this horse is a good horse, a nice horse, he just needed to run this kind of race to prove it. We were high on him, and he proved it.
“I didn’t expect to be on the lead to be honest, but the way he breaks, I got the one hole, so I’ve got to go with the flow,” Franco added. “He broke on top, I say, ‘I outbroke the other horses,’ so I went on with him. I was comfortable and happy with the way he was doing it. He’s got stamina. In the gallop out, he kept going forward. He’ll go further than that.”
Cox said he will consider a pair of “Win and You’re In” qualifiers for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) for The Good Life, including the 1 1/16-mile Breeders’ Futurity (G1) on Oct. 3 at Keeneland or the one-turn mile $500,000 Champagne (G1) on the same day at Belmont Park.
“We’ll let him tell us, he’s a fast horse,” Cox said. “Obviously, this was a huge win. We’ll see how he comes out of it and maybe look at the two-turn race at Keeneland [Breeders’ Futurity] or the one-turn Champagne.”
Bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm, The Good Life banked $165,000 in victory and has now earned $228,250. He is produced from the Speightstown mare First Hour.
