Kentucky-bred The Good Life made his stakes debut a winning one with a powerful front-running performance the $300,000 Hopeful S. (G1) at Saratoga on Saturday, Sept. 5. Trained by Brad Cox for WinStar Farm, First Go Racing and CHC, Inc., the Life Is Good colt went to post as the 5-2 race favorite on the back of an impressive debut maiden score on July 18.

Ridden by Manny Franco, The Good Life established the front soon after the start of the seven-furlong test. He traveled in-hand throughout and turned for home with plenty of energy. He found another gear in the lane and opened on his rivals, ultimately scoring by four lengths at the wire.

“We knew this horse is a good horse, a nice horse, he just needed to run this kind of race to prove it,” said Franco. “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. I was comfortable and happy with the way he was doing it.”

Cox said he was pleased with the effort from The Good Life.

“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.”

Cox making plans for The Good Life

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 while remaining perfect through two starts.