Sidney's Candy flies home in San Felipe

ARCADIA, Calif. - Sidney's Candy, left alone on the lead, roared home after setting soft fractions to capture the for 3-year-olds by a half-length on Saturday at Santa Anita.

Interactif closed resolutely to finish second, and Caracortado, the 7-5 favorite, finished third, another 1 1/2 lengths in arrears, while suffering the first loss of his career after five victories.

With jockey Joe Talamo aboard, Sidney's Candy ($9.60) got away with fractions of 24.39 seconds for the opening quarter-mile, 48.55 seconds for a half-mile, and a pedestrian 1:13.53 for six furlongs. He then ripped through the fourth quarter of the race in less than 23 seconds, and completed the final sixteenth of a mile in 6.04 seconds to polish off 1 1/16 miles on Pro-Ride in 1:42.30.

American Lion finished fourth and was followed, in order, by Stephen's Got Hope, Dave in Dixie, and Erbeia in the field of seven.

John Sadler trains Sidney's Candy, who has now won three times in five starts. The San Felipe was his first start around two turns. He won the seven-furlong San Vicente Stakes last month.

"He had an absolutely perfect trip," Talamo said. "John and I talked this morning. That was our plan - try to get to the lead, get him relaxed, and kick home. In the last part, he was kind of cruising. After the wire, when horses came to him, he kicked again. To go from a seven-eighths sprint to a mile and a sixteenth and relax like that, he's mature."

Jenny Craig owns Sidney's Candy, a chestnut colt by Candy Ride who was bred by Craig and her late husband, Sid.