Santa Anita: Candy Boy likely to wait for Santa Anita Derby after Lewis Stakes win

ARCADIA, Calif. – Candy Boy emerged from his victory in the Grade 2, $200,500 Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Saturday in good condition and likely will await the Grade 1, $1 million Santa Anita Derby on April 5 for his next start, trainer John Sadler said Sunday.

“I think I’ll wait for the Santa Anita Derby,” Sadler said. “I’m not in a hurry to rush back.”

Candy Boy overtook Chitu in the final sixteenth to win the 1 1/16-mile Lewis by a half-length, then galloped out strongly around the clubhouse turn. The next two-turn graded stakes race at Santa Anita for 3-year-olds is the Grade 2, $300,000 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 8, but Sadler said he likely would skip that race with Candy Boy and await the 1 1/8-mile Santa Anita Derby. Sadler intends to run another colt, Kristo, in the San Felipe.

Sadler said the one thing he is confident of with Candy Boy is that distances like those of the Santa Anita Derby, or the 1 1/4 miles of the Kentucky Derby on May 3, will not be a problem.

“He can run all day,” Sadler said. “A lot of these horses, they’re just getting stretched out, you’re wondering how they’ll do. I don’t have that worry with him.

“His mother,” Sadler said, referring to the In Excess mare She’s an Eleven, “was really ‘scopey.’ Distance is not an issue.”

Candy Boy is by Candy Ride. His actual third birthday is March 31.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

The Lewis victory was worth 10 points under the points system used by Churchill Downs to determine the field for the Kentucky Derby should more than the maximum of 20 horses enter the race. The San Felipe is worth 50 points for first, while the Santa Anita Derby is worth 100 points to the winner.

Both Chitu and Midnight Hawk, who finished third, were reported to be in good order Sunday by their trainer, Bob Baffert. Each came into the race 2 for 2.

Chitu was trying two turns for the first time. “He took a lot of heat,” Baffert said.

Midnight Hawk, who won last month’s Sham Stakes, “got pretty rank” early in the race, Baffert said.

Baffert said he would wait a couple of weeks before deciding on the next starts for those colts because he will have to sort out where to run a number of his runners. He has Bayern and Tap It Rich in an allowance race here Thursday, and the unbeaten Indianapolis is scheduled to run in the Grade 2, $200,000 San Vicente Stakes next Sunday.

Baffert does have at least one out-of-town race on his radar.

“I want to go to the Rebel with something,” he said, referring to the Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 15.