After slow start to year, Candied poised for better second half
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A Grade 1 win at 2 and a decent third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies figured to have prepared Candied to be a major factor in the 3-year-old filly division this year.
It hasn’t quite worked out that way. Yet.
But there is the second half of the year to rectify that. Saturday, Candied will see where she stacks up against the division’s best when she faces multiple Grade 1 winner Thorpedo Anna in the Grade 1, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga.
On the strength of her Grade 1 Alcibiades win and a third behind Just F Y I and Jody’s Pride in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Candied was an Eclipse Award finalist in the 2-year-old filly division, an award that went to Just F Y I.
Candied fell behind some in her training preparing for her 3-year-old debut, which eventually came in April in the Grade 1 Ashland, where, after a slow start and a wide rally, she finished fourth behind stablemate Leslie’s Rose. Candied was left on the also-eligible list for the Kentucky Oaks and it would not have mattered had she drawn in because she had a foot abscess that forced her to be scratched.
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Trainer Todd Pletcher got a race into her in the Lady’s Secret Stakes at Monmouth Park, a race she won by 4 1/2 lengths over older fillies and mares. True, it was a four-horse field, but the second- and third-place finishers, Honor D Lady and Saddle Up Jessie, came back to run one-two in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 7.
“Her race was flatted by the two fillies coming back and finishing first and second in the Delaware Handicap,” Pletcher said. “That makes it look more impressive, especially how easy she did it. But she’s going to have to make another move forward if we think we’re going to win.”
Thorpedo Anna, the Kentucky Oaks and Acorn winner, will be a prohibitive favorite in the Coaching Club. Stranger things than an upset by Candied have certainly happened in Saratoga.
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