Candy Man Rocket leads 1-2 finish for Mott in Sam F. Davis Stakes

It’s been an eventful last few months for Bill Mott. The Hall of Fame trainer was beset with the coronavirus, which waylaid him this winter. His recent recovery came just in time to find a couple of his up-and-coming 3-year-olds running themselves into the early Kentucky Derby discussion.

Mott, watching from his winter base on the other Florida coast, was represented by the one-two finishers, Candy Man Rocket and Nova Rags, when the Grade 3, $200,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes was run for the 41st time Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla.

Candy Man Rocket, stretching out around two turns for the first time, got first run on stablemate Nova Rags in a one-length score in the 1 1/16-mile Davis, one of a handful of remaining 17-point (10-4-2-1) qualifying races toward the May 1 Kentucky Derby.

Junior Alvarado was aboard Candy Man Rocket, a Candy Ride colt owned by Frank Fletcher. The winner returned $8.20 as second choice in a field of 12 3-year-olds after finishing in 1:44.30 over a fast track.

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“Obviously he has some tactical speed, and he put Junior in a great spot,” said Mott’s son and assistant, Riley. “He got into a real nice comfort zone down the backside and Junior let him out a notch going to the three-eighths pole, and at that point there wasn’t a whole lot coming from behind.

“He hit the front a little bit early, which was concerning – he’s still inexperienced, and sometimes when they get to the front too early, they tend to wander. Junior kept him to the task and he really ran on well and passed the two-turn test.”

Nova Rags, a last-out winner of the seven-furlong Pasco at Tampa, finished a neck before late-running Hidden Stash in third. Boca Boy, who led to the quarter-pole, settled for fourth, while Known Agenda, the 3-2 favorite, was never a factor when rallying from well back for fifth.

Candy Man Rocket came into the Davis with the highest career Beyer Speed Figure in the field, an 85, but it came in a six-furlong maiden race in just his second career start last month at Gulfstream Park. The Kentucky-bred colt, a $250,000 purchase as a 2-year-old, clearly relished the added distance when making his stakes debut in the Davis, separating himself from the others at the top of the stretch with a burst of speed.

“I didn’t really want to engage the horse up front (Boca Boy), or make any quick move too early,” Alvarado said. “He started grinding it out, so I started picking it up and was really pleased turning for home. At the sixteenth pole, when I switched my stick to the right and showed it to him to see what I had left, he put his head low and kept grinding his way there.”

The Davis comes four weeks before the annual showcase race at Tampa, the March 6 Tampa Bay Derby, a 50-20-10-5 qualifier. Mott has won the Tampa Bay Derby twice, most recently with Tacitus, who set the stakes record in 2019.

The all-Mott $2 exacta (9-8) paid $66.80, the $1 trifecta (9-8-1) returned $236.20, and the 10-cent superfecta (9-8-1-7) was worth $216.46.