2023 Kentucky Derby pedigree profile: Hit Show

Hit Show

Candy Ride – Actress, by Tapit

Bred in Kentucky by Gary and Mary West

Hit Show has won 3 of 4 career starts, with his latest effort, a 5 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct, catapulting him up the Derby Watch list. Gary and Mary West’s homebred son of perennial leading sire Candy Ride brings a solid two-turn pedigree to further challenges on the Derby trail.

Candy Ride, who set Del Mar’s 1 1/4-mile track record winning the 2003 Pacific Classic, has not yet sired the winner of a Triple Crown race, but it seems only a matter of time, with the vast majority of his top-flight progeny succeeding around two turns. Candy Ride’s son Gun Runner finished third in the 2016 Kentucky Derby and went on to win the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Classic to earn Horse of the Year honors. He is now a classic sire in his own right.

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Candy Ride’s other two Eclipse Award winners are Shared Belief, whose five Grade 1 wins included a pair at 1 1/4 miles, and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Game Winner. He also is the sire of Sovereign Award champion Desert Ride, who won the Woodbine Oaks at 1 1/8 miles and Wonder Where Stakes at 1 1/4 miles.

Actress also was a successful runner around two turns, winning the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes and Grade 3 Comely Stakes, both at 1 1/8 miles. She also had four stakes placings.

As a broodmare, she is the dam of two winners from as many starters. Hot Rumor, her first foal, was a maiden winner at a mile at Horseshoe Indianapolis last summer. Hit Show is her second foal.

Actress sports a classic pedigree herself, being by Tapit, a powerful stamina influence, and out of Canadian champion and classic winner Milwaukee Appeal.

Milwaukee Appeal won the Woodbine Oaks before finishing third, beaten a neck, in the Queen’s Plate and second, beaten a nose, in the Prince of Wales. A millionaire, she went on to finish second in both the Grade 1 Alabama and Grade 1 Spinster Stakes.

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