A lot will have to go wrong for Eclatant to lose the Chicago
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Lotsandlotsofcandy has looked like an unusually talented horse since her second race, back in June 2024, when she won a Churchill Downs maiden sprint by seven lengths. The four starts in which she took a clear early lead, Lotsandlotsofcandy won, three times by wide margins, and there’s a universe in which she pops out of the gate and sails to the front Saturday at Churchill in the Chicago Stakes.
On June 10, Lotsandlotsofcandy worked five furlongs in 57.60 seconds, about as fast a five-eighths drill as you’ll find. Her exercise rider mainly let the mare breeze on her own, and Lotsandlotsofcandy galloped out still feeling fiery.
“She came out of that bullet breeze very well – could not be doing any better,” said Paul McGee, who trains Lotsandlotsofcandy for her breeder, Jay Em Ess Stable.
Everything – every little thing – could go right for Lotsandlotsofcandy on Saturday, and she still has little chance to win the Grade 2, $300,000 Chicago. That’s because Eclatant is one of the other seven in the seven-furlong Chicago.
Eclatant in two starts this season has proven one of the fastest sprinters – male or female – in North America. Her two races came at this seven-furlong distance, and after the last one, the Grade 1 Madison on April 4 at Keeneland, trainer Brad Cox and the filly’s owner and breeder, Stonestreet Stables, charted a course to best get Eclatant to two more Grade 1 goals – the Ballerina on Aug. 29 at Saratoga and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
The Derby City Distaff on May 1 came up too soon after the Madison. Cox could’ve sent Eclatant to the Bed o’ Roses two weekends ago at Saratoga, but, he said, that would’ve required shipping back to Churchill, then back to Saratoga for the Ballerina.
“I’m just biding my time,” Cox said. “This seemed like the better path.”
A somewhat checkered post-Madison workout pattern has to be viewed, Cox said, through the lens of long-term planning. Eclatant has gotten onto a steady four-breeze pattern and comes to this, according to her trainer, as the same horse who went into the Madison.
“She’s training the part,” Cox said.
Eclatant showed talent from the start of her 2-year-old campaign in 2024, but nothing like the level she hit this year. Her long-layoff comeback run at Gulfstream yielded a lofty 104 Beyer Speed Figure. The 109 she got in the Madison still stands as the highest female sprint figure this year.
To win the Madison, she nosed out the excellent mare Grand Job, who came back to lose another heartbreaker, the Bed o’ Roses, to the brilliant Ways and Means. Madison third-place finisher R Disaster returned to capture the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff by more than two lengths over Ways and Means.
A tricky trip from an inside draw might loom for Eclatant and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., and Eclatant spots solid competitors five pounds. None of that probably matters.
Queen’s Martini won a minor Oaklawn two-turn mile stakes in her last start, Beauty Reigns and Evanescence exit solid allowance wins, and the top three finishers from the May 26 Winning Colors at Churchill try the Chicago as well.
Only a neck separated that trio, with Usha staving off late-running Zeitlos after wearing down inside speed Foie Gras. Zeitlos picked up the pieces and has never run her best over seven furlongs, and if you reversed Winning Colors trips, Foie Gras, 6-1 on the Chicago morning line, might best Usha, listed as the 3-1 second choice.
Usha hounded Foie Gras throughout the Winning Colors while pressing from the outside but never could truly put away Foie Gras, who does her best work stalking the speed, the sort of trip she should get Saturday. One might want to take Foie Gras at a longer price, but it might be the case that neither of them wants any part of Eclatant.
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