Waggley Becomes First Stakes Winner for Life Is Good

The speedy 2-year-old Waggley continues to make headlines for WinStar Farm's freshman sire and four-time grade 1 winner Life Is Good. The bay filly, who earlier this month became her sire's initial winner by winning on debut at Keeneland, is now also Life Is Good's first stakes winner, capturing the $229,000 Kentucky Juvenile Stakes April 29 at Churchill Downs. Facing just two 2-year-old rivals in a 5-furlong race decimated by five scratches, the Wesley Ward trainee pressed the early pace before taking command and pulling away for a 1 3/4-length victory under Joel Rosario. She was timed in 1:00.37 on a sloppy track, returning $2.12 for a $2 win wager as the overwhelming favorite. Super Saiyajin ran second, and American Pope was last of the three. Waggley, bred by Fred Hertrich III and John Fielding in Kentucky out of the winning Malibu Moon daughter Lunar Empress, was a $200,000 purchase out of the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment to the 2025 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Bloodstock agent Ben McElroy acquired her there for David Mowat's Ten Broeck Farm. Life Is Good is a son of seven-time leading sire Into Mischief. A grade 1 winner at age 3 in the 2021 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), Life Is Good went on the following year to take the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1), Whitney Stakes (G1), and Woodward Stakes (G1). He retired with $4,541,700 in earnings. He stands for $60,000. Waggley's win vaults Life Is Good to the top of the freshman sire list by progeny earnings. The Party Continues in Isaac Murphy Later Wednesday at Churchill, Pin Oak Stud's Parchment Party prevailed in a test of stamina in the $196,000 Isaac Murphy Marathon Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile race on the main track. Steadily advancing over the course of the race under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez after beginning in the rear of the pack, Parchment Party took over from No Bien Ni Mal (BRZ) at the head of the long Churchill Downs stretch and repelled bids from Interceptor and Stowaway to prevail by 1 1/4 lengths. The Bill Mott trainee, who paid $4.52 to win, was timed in 2:31.51 after quick early fractions of :23.94, :48.17, and 1:14.18 established by Johny's Rendezvous. The latter began to yield on the last of three turns and faded to last. Interceptor outfinished Stowaway to grab the place. Parchment Party, a 5-year-old son of Constitution out of the Tiznow mare Life Well Lived, has carved out a successful niche as a long-distance dirt stakes horse after being an allowance-caliber horse in shorter dirt routes earlier in his career. He won two stakes races at 1 3/4 miles at Saratoga Race Course last summer, and now has two stakes wins this year, with the 1 1/2-mile Temperence Hill Stakes March 28 at Oaklawn Park preceding Wednesday's victory. Between two wins last year and the two in 2026, he ran 20th over a soft course in the Nov. 4 Melbourne Cup (G1), Australia's famous grass race for stayers. Parchment Party has never run better than fifth in three turf starts. Dana Bernhard of Pin Oak Stud purchased Parchment Party, bred by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, for $450,000 from the Stone Farm consignment to the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The horse has now earned $716,055 with a 6-1-1 record in 14 starts. Constitution stands for $110,000 at WinStar Farm.