Candy Overload has recency edge in Jacques Cartier Stakes
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Racing fit Candy Overload will meet the fast workers Ironstone and Arzak over six furlongs in Sunday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Jacques Cartier Stakes at Woodbine.
Trained by Mark Casse, Candy Overload has proven to be a lucrative private purchase by owner Gary Barber and his partners. In his first start for Casse in September, the stretch-runner hit traffic along the inside in the stretch before ending up fifth in the Grade 3 Vigil.
“He got in all kinds of trouble and probably should have won then,” Casse recalled.
Candy Overload subsequently took the $203,200 Kennedy Road Stakes traveling six furlongs on Nov. 27. Two weeks later, he finished a chalky fourth going 1 1/16 miles in the restricted Steady Growth Stakes.
“I brought him back a little too quick,” Casse said. “I thought he was pretty flat, and that could have been the two weeks. I would probably be tempted to try him long again, because I don’t know that we got a good read off that. He’s really a good seven-eighths horse. Three-quarters is a little short for him, but if it sets up, he’s good.”
Candy Overload started twice onTurfway’s Tapeta over the winter, winning the 6 1/2-furlong Forego Stakes before ending up a fast-closing third in the six-furlong Big Daddy Stakes. He’s being reunited with Sahin Civaci, who rode him to victory in the Grade 2 Kennedy Road.
Ironstone, a 4-year-old trained by Willy Armata, won two sprint stakes during his juvenile campaign and was a close third behind The Minkster and Rondure in the seven-furlong Queenston Stakes last spring. He went on to finish fourth in the Queen’s Plate and a front-running second as the favorite in the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie.
Ironstone won the Grade 3 Ontario Derby in October. He hasn’t started since a third-place finish in a 1 1/4-mile conditioned allowance/optional claimer on Nov. 13.
Rafael Hernandez will ride Ironstone, who has been working up a storm this spring on the Tapeta.
Maryland shipper Arzak is unraced since a fading ninth-place finish as the favorite in the Kennedy Road. He was at his peak last spring when winning the Jacques Cartier with a 97 Beyer Speed Figure. Kazushi Kimura has chosen to ride him over Ironstone.
Krista Cole-Simpson, the former trainer of Candy Overload, sends out another son of Reload, Red River Rebel, who defeated Candy Overload in his 2022 season opener in an Ontario-sired allowance.
“He’s beaten Candy Overload and Candy Overload has beaten him, so it certainly makes for an interesting storyline,” Cole-Simpson said. “They have different running styles. Candy likes to come from last, and Rebel likes to be in the mix from the start.”
Anarchist ships in from Santa Anita off back-to-back seconds in Grade 3 stakes. He has no synthetic-track experience.
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