Candlelight Hours has recency edge in Petro Memorial repeat bid

Multiple-time Ohio-bred champion Candlelight Hours is the defending winner of the J. William Petro Memorial Stakes. The mare looks to be in fine form as she seeks a repeat in Thursday’s $75,000 stakes for Ohio-bred fillies and mares at Thistledown.

Candlelight Hours, who races as a homebred for Elkhorn Oaks and who is trained by James Jackson, brings a 24-10-7-6 record into the 1 1/16-mile race and has earned more than $500,000. But perhaps more important than her consistency is her recency; she is the only runner in the field of seven coming into the race off a win.

Candlelight Hours was the champion Ohio-bred 2-year-old filly of 2021, when her victories included the season-capping Best of Ohio John W. Galbreath Stakes. A stakes winner in 2022, she achieved new heights in 2023, winning the Petro Memorial, the Best of Ohio Pay the Man Stakes, and the Best of Ohio Distaff to earn honors as champion statebred female. In the Distaff, she rolled by 3 1/2 lengths over fellow statebred champion R Three Angels, with stablemate Market Success another 6 3/4 lengths back in third. She faces both again Saturday.

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Candlelight Hours picked up right where she left off by winning an allowance race on April 24 at Thistledown in her season debut, rolling by 2 1/4 lengths with Terry Houghton, who rides Thursday, in the irons. Although that effort was at six furlongs, Candlelight Hours has three wins and a third in four outings at 1 1/16 miles.

R Three Angels, owned and trained by Jason DaCosta, was Ohio’s champion 3-year-old filly of 2022. She has made four starts already this year, with a pair of runner-up efforts to show for it.

Windy Lu Who joins Candlelight Hours and R Three Angels as the only stakes winner in this field – but that came in 2020 when she won the First Lady Stakes. She has three second-place finishes in five starts already this year.

Market Success, also trained by Jackson for Elkhorn Oaks, owns six career stakes placings but is still looking to break through. She was fifth in an April 29 allowance/optional-claiming race to open her season.

Stakes-placed She’s Crafty already has a record of 6-3-1-2 in a consistent start to her 2024 campaign. High Fire also is stakes-placed, and Lucky Penny Rose completes the field.

◗ Thistledown opened this season’s stakes slate with the $75,000 Michael Rowland Memorial last Saturday, and Moester ($26) rallied for a four-length upset win in the sprint for Ohio-accredited 3-year-olds and up. The gelding, trained by Glenroy Brown for Judith Walkin-Blanchard and Recaldo Blanchard, was scoring a repeat victory in the race after winning by a neck last year.

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