The initial favourite for the 2021 Kentucky Derby has had to pull out of this year’s event due to an injury.
Life is Good had been given odds of 4/1 with the bookmakers more than a month in advance of the famous event but has suffered a setback during a workout at Santa Anita over the weekend.
Owner Elliot Warden of WinStar Farm confirmed his horse will be “out for a few months” in quick time. The field for the event is now more open in terms of potential winners.
Life is Good has now been replaced by another Bob Baffert-trained horse as the favourite for this year’s Kentucky Derby as Concert Tour now has a price down at 4/1.
The Hall of Fame trainer has had winners at this event in two of the previous three years, with last year’s winner Authentic ridden by John Velazquez and the 2018 Triple Crown winner, Justify. The event caps off the two-week Kentucky Derby Festival.
Essential Quality isn’t far behind according to the bookmakers, with a price of 5/1 as the second favourite currently. To find out all of the odds for the 2021 Kentucky Derby you should visit website. Expect several changes between now and the race itself on 1 May due to form, upsets, surprise wins and injuries.
Life is Good itself had won both previous races in its career, including Santa Marina by 8 lengths earlier this month. It had been an odds on favourite for both races.
The three-year-old had already acquired the required 60 Derby points to make him eligible for the big race so he didn’t even need to compete at Santa Marina or any further events. As a result, Life is Good will now be missing the 147th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville and will be too old to compete at next year’s race.
This year’s first leg of the Triple Crown is expected to be a tight affair following Life is Good’s absence, with Greatest Honour and Hot Rod Charlie both at 10/1, and Prevalence, Medina Spirit and Risk Taking not far behind.
Two weeks later is the second leg of the Triple Crown, taking part at the Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, Maryland: The Preakness Stakes. The most famous Grade 1 stakes races in the United States conclude on Sunday 16 June with the Belmont Stakes in New York.
These races have all been taking part since the 1870s with the last Triple Crown winner being Justify back in 2018. This was only the second time this millennium that the same horse had won all three races in the same year, following American Pharoah in 2015, who was also trained by the legendary Bob Baffert.
Justify was forced into an early retirement later that year due to injury. There had only been 158 days between its first and last races, fluid in his left front ankle forced retirement upon him after going a perfect six wins from six races.
Jack Timms is an independent writer with 8 years experience in writing sports articles for various magazines and newspapers. Most of his work is on horse racing or football, and he has written for magazines such as Thoroughbred Racing and Luxuria Lifestyle. Jack lives in York with his dog, Poppins.
