Living the Life (IRE)

Origin. An Irish-bred by Footstepsinthesand out of the Machiavellian mare Colour And Spice, she was bred by Michael Begley and sold as a yearling at the 2011 Goffs Orby Sale for $12,179. HnR bought her privately from a British owner for roughly $43,000 through bloodstock agent Carl McEntee at Darby Dan Farm. The plan was to buy young, raced fillies with good pedigrees in Britain, import them, and run them at Del Mar under the Ship-and-Win incentive. She became available earlier than the Del Mar window required, so Hank Nothhaft took out a British owner’s license and campaigned her at home first.

The British campaign. Carl’s brother Phil McEntee trained her at Newmarket. He put weight on a thin filly and added blinkers, and she made four starts at Lingfield over seven furlongs on the Tapeta between February and April 2014. She showed a new front-running style in the first two, taking leads of six and seven lengths into the stretch and getting caught late once for second before winning a photo on February 28 with Paddy Aspell up. She was run down again in March, finishing third by 2½ lengths in a handicap that included seven males.

The February win qualified her for the inaugural 32Red.com All-Weather Fillies’ & Mares’ Championship at Lingfield on Good Friday, April 18. Fourteen fillies and mares entered, she drew post 8, and she was bet from 12-1 down to 8-1 as fourth choice. Adam Kirby, the leading rider at the track, sent her across to the rail at the break, let her sit on a short lead, then asked her five furlongs out. She opened up to six lengths and won by 3½ over favorite High Time Too. She was the first All-Weather Champion, on the first Good Friday racing was ever held in Britain. She shipped to California with a purse account of nearly $180,000, more than three times what HnR paid for her.

America. Gary Mandella took over. She won a Del Mar allowance optional claiming on August 7, 2014 in her U.S. debut, and a month later went to Presque Isle Downs for the $400,000 Masters (G2) at 6½ furlongs on the Tapeta. Sent off the 2.70-to-1 favorite in a field of 10 with Mike Smith up, she raced between horses down the backside, rallied three wide, took a slight lead at mid-stretch and dug in to hold by 1½. That was $240,000 to the winner and an Equibase 107.

She went to the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Santa Anita seven weeks later and finished tenth on the dirt. It was the wrong surface and the record says so.

At five she won the Camilla Urso at Golden Gate, ran second in the Great Lady M (G2) at Los Alamitos, and returned to Presque Isle on September 7, 2015 to defend the Masters. Joe Bravo tracked the leaders from between horses, angled to the rail at the head of the lane and drove clear by ¾ of a length over the 1.30 favorite Leigh Court. Her career-best Equibase figure, 113, came out of that race, and another $240,000.

At six she took on the best older mares in California on dirt: fourth in the Santa Monica (G2), third in the Santa Maria (G2), and third in the Santa Margarita (G1) on March 19, 2016, her Grade 1 placing. Then Mandella sent her to Golden Gate on May 30 for the All American (G3) at a mile against males, the only female in a field of 12 and the longest trip she ever attempted. Drayden Van Dyke stalked to the half, moved up to duel between rivals on the second turn, and she took the lead in mid-stretch and held on by a neck. She was 2.60-to-1 and it paid $60,000.

Her last start was the Presque Isle Masters on September 19, 2016, going for a third straight. She finished second. Mandella found some filling in an ankle after a work at Santa Anita on October 22, scratched her from a planned Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint and announced her retirement on October 27. The injury was minor. The Breeders’ Cup was going to be her last race regardless.

The record. Thirty-five starts, 10-6-4, $1,028,394. She won on synthetic in Britain and America, placed at graded level on dirt, and won a graded stakes at a mile after a career spent mostly at five to six and a half furlongs. She was a synthetic-track standout who was good enough on dirt to finish third in a Grade 1.

As a broodmare. She retired to the HnR broodmare band in Kentucky, where she has produced two runners of note, both by Justify. Living Magic, a filly foaled January 22, 2021, won three of ten starts and $222,917, taking the Listed Chelsey Flower and the Listed My Dear at two and placing in three other juvenile stakes before retiring to the broodmare band. Her full brother Appeared won a 2,400-meter maiden at the Curragh in October 2025, then sold to Darby Racing and De Burgh Equine for 120,000 guineas out of the Coolmore consignment at Tattersalls. He now races in Australia as a gelding, with HnR retaining an interest through the Darby syndicate.

In retirement. Living the Life is happily retired at the HnR farm as of 2026, where she lives with her paddock companions Randie’s Legend and Kindle, and is known to gallop to the fence looking for treats anytime she spots Hank or Randie.