The Good Life

Gerry Duffy joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss GI Hopeful winner The Good Life, his sire Life is Good, and his own transition to a new role at WinStar Farm. Plus, the crew closes out the Saratoga meet and looks ahead to weekend racing at Kentucky Downs and Woodbine.

If races at Saratoga and Del Mar last Saturday respectively identified the leading juvenile filly on either coast, they also measured a corresponding span of opportunity in the broodmare market. On the one hand, Mike Slezak found a tremendous bargain when acquiring the dam of GI Del Mar Debutante winner Miss Monica (Early Voting) for $4,000 at the Fasig-Tipton February Sale. But the performance of Summer Starlet (City of Light) in the GI Spinaway Stakes showed that steeper investments can prove barely less rewarding. Summer Starlet was herself part of...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--At the end of Sunday's fourth race--the GIII, $225,000 Prioress, jockey Manny Franco let loose. The 31-year-old from Puerto Rico had just won the six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies easily as Mashallah, the 2-5 favorite, won by five lengths. When Franco and Mashallah, trained by Brendan Walsh, cruised past the finish line, he stood up, then pumped his right fist. Then, for emphasis, he did it again. Why not? With the victory, Franco clinched his first riding title at Saratoga. The Prioress was his 68th win of the...

Highlighting another banner day at Saratoga, meet-leading jockey Manny Franco guided 5-2 favorite The Good Life (Life Is Good) in Sunday's GI Hopeful Stakes during Saratoga's closing weekend. Going to the front soon after the start, 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' The Good Life led Mystrix (Good Magic) through an opening quarter in :22.71 and a half through :45.40. The Good Life was still confidently in charge turning for home, and while Mystrix did his best to close the gap on the loose-on-the lead frontrunner, the favorite was not...

A trio from the juvenile division of Doug O'Neill will try to de-throne a powerhouse duo from the Bob Baffert barn in a bid for elite-level black type in Sunday's GI Del Mar Futurity less than an hour after Saratoga hosts a competitive running of the GI Hopeful Stakes. Having been compared, quite favorably, to his sire by their mutual trainer, Booked (Yaupon) will line up against seven other well-related juveniles in the GI Hopeful Stakes in an effort to join the stallion as a fellow Grade I winner at...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - On his final day at Saratoga Race Course, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse had a little bit of business before closing out shop for the summer. Casse leaves Saratoga on Thursday, bound for Kentucky Downs. On a raw, overcast Wednesday morning at the Spa, Casse sent two horses with fall goals out for their final Saratoga workouts. One of them, Nitrogen (Medgalia d'Oro) has a lofty target as she is set to return to the Breeders' Cup. The other, Sandman (Tapit), continues on the comeback...

Saratoga Maidens, Presented by Keeneland WinStar Farm, First Go Racing and CHC, Inc.'s The Good Life (c, 2, Life Is Good--First Hour, by Speightstown) shot out to the front and dominated a talented-looking bunch on debut at the Spa Saturday to become the third 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' for his freshman sire. Off at odds of 3-1, the Brad Cox-trained The Good Life was hustled to the front from his inside draw by Manny Franco and led through an opening quarter in :22.92. He began to let it...