It featured the top-ranked older horses in the United States, Flightline, Life Is Good and Olympiad, and the leading three-year-olds, Epicenter and Taiba.
All eight entrants had won a Grade I race at some point in their career, and six were coming off wins in their previous start.
The leading contenders include:[3][4][5] The two favorites, Flightline and Life Is Good, both had front-running styles and the concern before the race was that they would tire each other out in an early speed duel, opening the door to late closers.
[6] As expected, Life Is Good went to the early lead with Flightline a half-length behind after an opening quarter mile in a brisk 22.55 seconds.
At the top of the stretch, Flightline quickly drew away from Life Is Good, then continued to open the lead to win by 8+1⁄4 lengths over Olympiad and Taiba.
"[8] "The plan was to make Flightline earn it," said Elliott Walden of WinStar Farm, which co-owns Life Is Good.