Lotsandlotsofcandy has Mardi Gras Stakes up next

The connections of the 5-year-old mare Lotsandlotsofcandy were willing to try their horse on turf last weekend in the Nelson Menard Memorial but did not at all mind the Menard getting rained off grass. That made Lotsandlotsofcandy an odds-on favorite, and she ran her career record to 6-4-1-0 while winning her stakes debut by 4 1/2 lengths and earning a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

The lightly raced mare’s winter will proceed similarly. While the Fair Grounds stakes schedule is light on dirt sprints for both males and females, turf sprints abound, and Paul McGee, who trains Lotsandlotsofcandy for her breeder, Samantha Siegel’s Jay Em Ess Stable, said he plans to enter the mare in the next such race, the Mardi Gras on Feb. 17.

“I think that’s where we’re going to land. It could set her up well for Keeneland and Churchill in the spring,” McGee said.

Lotsandlotsofcandy has struggled to get into a racing pattern but exited the third start of her form cycle in good order, McGee said. The mare drifted out from the furlong grounds to the wire, but jockey Brian Hernandez told McGee he thought his mount was looking at something, perhaps the Fair Grounds video board.

As was the case in the Menard, Siegel and McGee either will get to see what Lotsandlotsofcandy can do on turf, or wind up in another watered-down grass race next month.

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