Horse racing | Life Is Sweet takes Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic

ARCADIA, Calif. — Life got sweeter for Life Is Sweet without her daunting stablemate Zenyatta in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic. After fruitlessly chasing the undefeated mare in three previous races, Life Is Sweet found the winner's circle.

Garrett Gomez guided the 4-year-old filly from last place — almost 18 lengths behind after a half-mile — to a 2 ½-length victory over Mushka in Friday's $1.818 million race at Santa Anita.

Life Is Sweet was one of four winners at odds of 6-1 or higher to prevail in the six Breeders' Cup races on the first day of the two-day event.

There are eight Cup races today, including Zenyatta's appearance against males in the $5 million Classic.

Life Is Sweet and Zenyatta are trained by John Shirreffs, for different owners.

Life Is Sweet ran 1-1/8 miles in 1 minute, 48.58 seconds and returned $18.20 on a $2 win bet.

"I was glad she was able to get it done today," Shirreffs said. "She really deserves this.

"She had been coming into this race really great."

Careless Jewel, a 3-year-old filly favored at 19-10 odds in the field of eight, led by 7 lengths with 3 furlongs to go before fading to last.

"She locked onto the bridle and went as far as she could, as fast as she could. That's not her," said Robert Landry, who rode Careless Jewel. "It's disappointing because she's a much better filly than she showed."

Julien Leparoux rode two winners — She Be Wild ($16.80 to win) in the Juvenile Fillies and Informed Decision ($8.80) in the Filly & Mare Sprint — on a day that went off without incident to horses or riders. Favorites went 0 for 6 to start the second consecutive Breeders' Cup on Santa Anita's synthetic Pro-Ride surface.

Life Is Sweet improved to 4 for 5 this year in races where Zenyatta wasn't running, with her loss to males in the Hollywood Gold Cup in Inglewood, Calif.

"If you have to be overshadowed by something, that is the right mare to be overshadowed by," Life Is Sweet co-owner Marty Wygod said of Zenyatta. "She's a great, great mare."

Life Is Sweet's training was disrupted by severe muscle cramping in July and August.

"The thing that was frustrating us was, after her three races at Santa Anita where she was showing she had the makings of possibly being a champion, she just wasn't right after that," Wygod recalled. "She would continually tie up [cramp] and give John a lot of different problems. She was off and on medication.

"But John felt very strongly she'd be right today."

Note

• Blind Luck, ridden by Seattle native Tyler Baze and partly owned by Redmond resident Mark Dedomenico, finished third as the 7-2 favorite in the $1.818 million Juvenile Fillies, earning $198,000.

Blind Luck, trained and partly owned by Jerry Hollendorfer, won the Oct. 4 Oak Leaf at Santa Anita in her previous start.