2023 Eclipse Awards: Candied

Candied, who stretched out to become a Grade 1 winner in just her second start, is among the finalists for the Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding 2-year-old filly of 2023.

Candied, by perennial leading sire Candy Ride, was bred in Kentucky by Buck Pond Farm. She was a $165,000 purchase by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale. Prior to the Breeders’ Cup this year, Eclipse principal Aron Wellman said Sean Tugel, the partnership’s vice president for bloodstock, deserves the credit for scouting the filly out.

“He spotted her on the sales grounds and was immediately enamored by her,” Wellman said.

:: Full list of 2023 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

“Throughout the week she jumped through all his hoops and he was sending me videos and updates on her as we went through our process. We decided we were going to take a swing at her and were very pleased to land her at the price we did, $165,000. That’s not a little amount of money by any stretch of the imagination, but in the grand scheme of the marketplace, relatively speaking, it was a very good value.”

Candied debuted at Saratoga for Todd Pletcher, in one of the boutique summer meeting’s signature maiden special weight races featuring well-bred and well-meant juveniles who are often earmarked as potential future stakes competitors. Going six furlongs on Aug. 20, she won by three-quarters of a length over $725,000 yearling Catherine Wheel, with favored Munny Rockette, a $1 million juvenile purchase, in third.

Off that effort, Candied stepped up to Grade 1 company and stretched out to 1 1/16 miles for the Darley Alcibiades Stakes on opening day of Keeneland’s fall meeting.

“I thought the filly had the talent to do it; I was just concerned about the seasoning,” Pletcher said at the time. “Several of the fillies in here that we had to beat today had good, solid campaigns and she was just making her second start. But I’ll tell you, she trained impressively before her debut and she then just kept getting better afterwards. She was finishing her works and galloping out like she wanted more ground.”

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Candied indeed appreciated the ground. Racing in fourth at the five-sixteenths pole, the filly gamely ground her way through the stretch, putting a head in front of favored V V’s Dream near the furlong grounds and edging clear to win by a length. She did so despite racing on the wrong lead, indicating that more development could be in the offing as she becomes less green.

The Alcibiades win earned Candied an automatic berth in the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita, in which she drew the inside post in the large field of 12. The filly bobbled at the start, was five wide around the far turn, and brushed with another filly in the stretch. Still, she was making up ground late to finish third, beaten just three-quarters of a length.

Three fine performances at three different tracks, while overcoming both her own greenness and racing luck, have made Candied an Eclipse finalist.

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