The Sham Stakes Tipsheet

A cast of five 3-year-old prospects will travel one mile on the Santa Anita main surface in Saturday’s $100,000 Sham S. (G3) The 2021 Road to the Kentucky Derby event will reward the top four finishers with qualifying points on a 10-4-2-1 structure towards the Run for the Roses on May 1.

Sham Picks

• #5 Life Is Good
• #1 Medina Spirit
• #2 Waspirant

Sham Wagers

• $25 Exacta 5 with 1
• $10 Trifecta Key 5 with 1,2

Sham Contenders

#1 MEDINA SPIRIT impressed me with a sharp debut sprint win at Los Alamitos for Bob Baffert. The dark bay son of Protonico will have blinkers removed for his stakes debut, and I believe that he will handle the added distance on Saturday with ease. Abel Cedillo will be in the silks atop the Florida-bred.

#2 WASPIRANT will remove the blinkers following his fourth-place result in the American Pharoah (G1) in his latest endeavor. John Shirreffs trainee has posted a total of 11 morning drills in anticipation of his return, and healthy improvement is expected with regular rider Rispoli accepting the mount.

#3 PARNELLI broke through in his fourth career appearance following a trio of runner-up finishes to kickstart his career. The second from the Shirreffs shedrow has excellent gate presence, and he proved capable of rating when winning from slightly off the pace last time out as well. Kentucky-bred retains the services of Drayden Van Dyke.

#4 UNCLE BOOGIE has done little wrong from three starts with a win and two seconds to his credit, led by a runner-up effort in the Bob Hope (G3) most recently. Ride on Curlin colt will need another step forward to run past this field late, however. Flavien Prat riding him once again is a plus.

#5 LIFE IS GOOD couldn’t have looked much better at first asking for Baffert when dominating from the start and posting a 100 Brisnet Speed number. $525,000 son of Into Mischief gets a perfect outside draw in the compact field, and his recent works indicate that he could be something special going forward. Mike Smith will guide the one to beat.