Danzing Candy's San Carlos victory honors bloodline

It was a fitting result when Danzing Candy won the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita, as the colt is closely related to Better Talk Now, who died four days prior of complications following colic surgery.

Danzing Candy, from the first crop of Twirling Candy, posted his third graded stakes victory in the San Carlos for breeder Halo Farms, which co-owns the colt with Dianne and Jim Bashor. He is out of the placed Songandaprayer mare Talkin and Singing – a half-sister to Better Talk Now, whose five Grade 1 victories were highlighted by the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Turf. The gelding also finished second in the 2006 Turf, one of his five consecutive appearances in the race.

Better Talk Now and Talkin and Singing were both produced by the stakes-placed Baldski mare Bendita, also the dam of stakes winner B. A. Way and Grade 3-placed Beat the Play. In addition to Talkin and Singing, her stakes-producing daughters include Beat the Play, the dam of stakes-placed Medaglia Beat, and Talkin Indian, the dam of Grade 2-placed Skinner Box.

Talkin and Singing produced a full brother to Danzing Candy who is now a yearling. The mare was sold for $550,000 to Summer Wind Farm at last fall’s Keeneland November breeding stock sale. Earlier this year, she produced a filly by Candy Ride – the sire of Twirling Candy – who has already been named Sweet Revenge.