FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 2021 LIFE IS GOOD TO PLETCHER, COLLECTED=S FIRST CROP REFLECTING HIS PEDIGREE=S SIRE POWER RETURNS TO WORKTAB by Katie Ritz Carrie Brogden wasn=t planning on purchasing many pinhook prospects for Machmer Hall at last year=s Keeneland November Sale. She was busy inspecting the stock on her clients= shopping lists, plus her farm already had a plethora of weanlings back home that would need to be prepped come summertime. But on the fourth day of the sale, a colt entered the ring that she couldn=t pass up. The February-foaled weanling came from the James B. Keogh consignment and was a son of first-crop weanling sire Collected (City ZipBHelena Bay (GB), by Johannesburg). The youngster was out of the winning Arch mare Androeah, a full sister to GISW Archarcharch. AI just fell in love with this guy,@ Brogden said. AWe bought him off David Anderson, who is well known for raising top horses. He was a big, strong, strapping, uncomplicated type with lots of bone and was correct.@ Cont. p3 Life Is Good | Zoe Metz by Bill Finley and Steve Sherack IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Undefeated and considered one of the most promising horses MOJO READY FOR SECOND DERBY TEST in the sport, Life Is Good (Into Mischief) will soon join the Todd Amo Racing’s Derby runner-up Mojo Star (Ire) (Sea The Stars Pletcher stable. He had been trained by Bob Baffert, who has {Ire}) looks to break his maiden in Saturday’s Irish Derby. lost a number of top horses due to his ongoing problems Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. 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. ALife is Good worked this a.m. with our farm trainer, Destin Heath at Keeneland,@ Walden said via text. AHis 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. 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Chief Financial Officer Ray Villa [email protected] TODAY’S GRADED STAKES [email protected] ET Race Click for TV WORLDWIDE INFORMATION 2:20p William Hill Hoppings Fillies' S.-G3, NC -------------- TVG International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 9 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • JUNE 25, 2021 Life Is Good to Pletcher, Back on Worktab cont. from p1 AWe=ve had really good luck with this whole female family,@ Baffert has been banned by the New York Racing Association Brogden explained. AIt=s a big, raw, lengthy family so I was and, currently, is not able to run in New York or stable there. He thinking that if City Zip were still alive, he would be the perfect has, however, filed a suit against NYRA seeking a stay that would type of stallion to breed to this mare.@ allow him to compete at the NYRA tracks. Brogden turned to City Zip=s Grade I-winning son Collected and Walden declined to answer any other questions regarding is now pleased with the resulting filly. 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. Click here for our visit with Collected and a few of his promising first yearlings. | Sarah Andrew AWe=re shareholders in Collected and have been big fans of the stallion and of Marette Farrell, who purchased him as a 2-year- old. I feel like we got what we were looking for [in the yearling] with the size and stretch from the female family but with a big hip. There are a lot of qualities of City Zip that I see in her, which Collected cont. from p1 I love.@ Brogden purchased the colt for $65,000 and is now preparing Machmer Hall has been a strong supporter of Collected since the chestnut for his return to the sales ring at the Fasig-Tipton he joined Airdrie Stud in 2019. Based on the progeny Brogden July Sale, where he will sell as Hip 340. has seen in Collected=s first two crops, she has noticed a strong Machmer Hall will be represented by a second Collected resemblance to the late perennial leading sire City Zip. yearling at the same auction. Hip 279, a homebred for the farm, AI did think he was going to throw back to City Zip, so I=m very is the first foal out of Shawklit Cake (Majesticperfection). pleased with what we=ve seen,@ she noted. Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 9 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • JUNE 25, 2021 AI love the fact that they=re colored like City Zip. I love to see, like with Into Mischief, when they stamp them in their colors. With these guys, the City Zip shines through and I think Collected might be able to walk in his sire=s footsteps based on what I=m seeing. They=re athletic and uncomplicated with great minds and they=re easy keepers. They=re what you=d like to see as they=re progressing towards the racetrack.@ Collected bests champion Arrogate in the 2017 GI Pacific Classic S. | Horsephotos Airdrie Stud=s Bret Jones agreed that Collected=s first few crops seem to reflect the best in both the young stallion and his sire. AThese foals are very much in Collected=s image,@ Jones said. AThey=ve got that City Zip kind of look, but with a little more leg, a little more size, and I=d have to say they=re a little more correct.@ While Collected=s progeny have been likened to their grandsire, Jones said that the stallion himself has often been compared to the internationally influential sire Blushing Groom (Fr), a prominent member of Collected=s female family. ACollected=s pedigree is fabulous and so many people who have come out to see him have said that he really is the spitting image of Blushing Groom,@ he said. AThe similarities are striking. You think of what an important stallion Blushing Groom has been and this horse has the same beautiful look with that medium size that fits the different kinds of mares that come his way. He=s that wonderfully good-balanced type with the big walk that everybody loves. He really moves like an athlete @ Bred by Runnymede Farm and Peter J. Callahan, the son of the winning Johannesburg mare Helena Bay (GB) was a $170,000 OBS March purchase by Farrell for Speedway Stables in 2015.