2022 Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Epicenter

Epicenter

Not This Time – Silent Candy, by Candy Ride

Bred in Kentucky by Westwind Farms ($260,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Winchell Thoroughbreds)

The young stallion Not This Time has enjoyed a stellar spring with his runners. His leading 3-year-old is Louisiana Derby winner Epicenter, who will be among the favorites in the Kentucky Derby in less than three weeks.

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Not This Time, by Giant’s Causeway, won the 2016 Iroquois Stakes by 8 3/4 lengths and was second by a neck in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to champion Classic Empire. A soft-tissue injury forced him into early retirement, but he proved equally precocious in his second career. On the 2020 freshman sire list, he finished third by earnings while leading by winners, and he led 2021 second-crop sires by earnings. This year, he is already the sire of six stakes winners, led by Epicenter, who dominated the Fair Grounds series of Kentucky Derby preps, with a win in the Gun Runner, a runner-up effort in the Grade 3 Lecomte, and then wins in the Risen Star and Louisiana Derby, both Grade 2 events. He also is the sire of Just One Time, winner of the Grade 1 Madison Stakes at Keeneland.

Not This Time is expected to have at least one additional Derby entrant in Fountain of Youth winner Simplification. His son In Due Time sits 22nd on the points list as of midweek.

Silent Candy won 5 of 19 starts, all at distances beyond a mile. Her career was highlighted by a win in the Hatoof Stakes on the Arlington turf, and she also was Grade 3-placed going two turns on the lawn. Epicenter is one of her three winners from five starters; two have won beyond a mile.

Silent Candy is a half-sister to Grade 3-placed Quite a Handful. It is the extended family of Japanese Grade 1 winner Taiki Herakles.

This is a similar pedigree pattern to the one that produced Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year in the Winchell colors, and the sire of Kentucky Derby prep winners Cyberknife and Taiba, as well as champion Echo Zulu, among the Kentucky Oaks favorites.

Gun Runner is by Candy Ride and out of a Giant’s Causeway mare. Epicenter is by a son of Giant’s Causeway, and out of a Candy Ride mare.