Churchill Downs: Life of Joy wins stretch duel in Rags to Riches
Odds-on favorite Life of Joy drew away in a stretch duel with second choice The Grumpy Rabbit, widening her advantage in the final furlong on her way to a 2 1/4-length win Sunday in the listed, $200,000 Rags to Riches Stakes at Churchill Downs.
Irad Ortiz Jr. rode the victory for trainer Brad Cox in the two-turn, 1 1/16-mile race which awarded 10-5-3-2-1 Kentucky Oaks (G1) qualifying points to the top five finishers in the opening-day race for six 2-year-old fillies.
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The Grumpy Rabbit (5-2), ridden by José Ortiz for trainer Kenny McPeek, established a dawdling early pace through a 25.15-second quarter-mile and a 49.86 half. Josie Joe (6-1), with Luis Sáez up, stalked in second and was flanked up the backstretch by Life of Joy (4-5).
Life of Joy accelerated in the second turn, moving past wilting Josie Joe into second while The Grumpy Rabbit led through three-quarters of a mile in 1:14.44.
The Ortiz brothers rode stride for stride through first half of the homestretch. Life of Joy put her nose in front of inside running The Grumpy Rabbit near the eighth pole. She led through a mile in 1:39.30 and drew away to a final time of 1:45.76 on the fast main track.
“I had a clean break, and there was not too much speed on the lead,” Irad Ortiz said. “I felt like she was going pretty comfortable early, so I wanted to make sure I got her in the clear and start going forward down the backside. I was just a good passenger.”
Life of Joy paid $3.68, $2.74 and $2.32. The Grumpy Rabbit placed second and returned $3.26 and $2.42. Go to Girl (9-1), also trained by McPeek and ridden by Emmanuel Ésquivel, rallied to cross third and paid $3.44 to show. Americathegreat finished fourth (5-1), Tearing’up My Heart (29-1) fifth and Josie Joe last. Kingsolver was scratched.
Sired by Gun Runner and owned by Will Stroud, Andrew Farm, Mountmellick Farm and For the People Racing Stable, Life of Joy is 2-for-2. She won her debut by 14 3/4 lengths going a mile Oct. 2 at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
“She showed a tremendous amount of talent there at Indiana and was an easy winner first out,” Cox said. “We shipped her back here immediately and just wanted to take our time with her. The work last week (four furlongs in 50.20 seconds) was a good move. She was moving well, and I thought it showed us we can enter to see what the field was like. She backed up the way she was training the past couple weeks.”