Candied

For Aron Wellman and the Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners team, the next few days promise plenty of excitement and maybe a few sleepless nights. Their three-time Grade I winner Journalism (Curlin), whom they co-own, is poised for a bid in the Breeders' Cup Classic, but once the dust settles at Del Mar on Saturday, their focus will quickly turn to Lexington, where a lineup of star Eclipse fillies will go through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Eclipse has made a habit of turning top-class racemares into headline-makers in the...

Candied (Candy Ride {Arg}) made it back to the winner's circle for the first time since last summer as she powered home a winner in the Allaire DuPont Distaff Stakes on the Black-Eyed Susan undercard. The victress in the GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland as a late juvenile, Candied won the Lady's Secret Stakes at Monmouth in early June. Incredibly consistent afterwards, the filly was the runner-up in the GI CCA Oaks and the GI Alabama Stakes, both at the Spa. The lioness also finished third in the GI...

Good first impressions are a must in most professional situations, and Gin Gin (Hightail) stepped up in a big way for new trainer Brendan Walsh when she dominated the GIII Baird Doubledogdare Stakes at Keeneland Friday evening. Previously in the barn of Brad Cox, she had a stakes win in New York to her credit in 2024 by way of the Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct in mid-January, but went winless for the rest of the season including a start in the GI Kentucky Oaks. Running 12th in the premier spring...

Friday's GIII Baird Doubledogdare Stakes at Keeneland has all the trappings of a high-level race as a salty group of seven older fillies and mares have assembled to go a mile and a sixteenth on the main track. Made the 8-5 choice on Nick Tammaro's morning-line, Candied (Candy Ride {Arg}) makes her 4-year-old debut for trainer Todd Pletcher. In 2024, the filly finished off the board in only one Grade I race out of the five. She was last seen running third in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff at...

Is Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) the 2024 Horse of the Year? That will undoubtedly be the most-asked question in racing from now until the Eclipse Awards in late January. In a year where Thorpedo Anna's name has seemingly never been far from any racing conversation, the brilliant 3-year-old filly showed why she absolutely should be under heavy consideration for Horse of the Year honors with a sublime victory in Saturday's $2-million GI Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar. The race was hers to lose and the task made considerably less...

Continuing an important weekend as next month's Breeders' Cup World Championships rapidly approach, Keeneland's GI Juddmonte Spinster Stakes headlines Sunday's graded stakes action spanning from coast to coast. A 'Win and You're In' for the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff, the Spinster has six contenders signed on, including last season's champion older mare Idiomatic (Curlin), who draws the rail under regular pilot Florent Geroux. The winner of a trio of Grade I stakes in 2023--capped off by the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Santa Anita--the Juddmonte homebred has proven consistent at...

With the connections of the well-reputed 'Grizzley' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) opting to wait another week to face the boys in the GI Travers S., Power Squeeze (Union Rags) took full advantage of the Kentucky Oaks winner's absence and stormed home a narrow winner in the 10-furlong GI Alabama Stakes at Saratoga Saturday. MGSW Chatalas (Gun Runner) broke quickly, going to the front with a host of pursuers at her heels. Meanwhile, Power Squeeze tried to establish a clear path from Post 3, but was squeezed back as America's Vow...

The absence of the 'Grizzly Bear' has not put a damper on Saturday's GI Alabama Stakes, neither for the connections in it nor likely for the betting public, but despite Candied (Candy Ride {Arg}) being the class of the field, it's not as cut and dry of an affair. Currently sitting cosy at 7-5 on the morning line, Candied is deservedly the one to beat as victory in the GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes, a third in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, and a gutsy second to 'TDN Rising Star'...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--A long-term plan and a recent decision brought California-based, Indiana-prepped Chatalas (Gun Runner) the rest of the way across the continent to run in the GI $600,000 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Feeling that she is better on dirt, her owners and trainer Mark Glatt decided last winter to avoid grass racing and point her to 3-year-old filly stakes in the Midwest and East. In her first start in seven months, Chatalas won the GIII Indiana Oaks by a head on July 6. Four weeks later, when...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- Once the $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes is history, 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) will head back to running against fillies. Trainer Kenny McPeek said he has no plans on running his talented miss against the colts after the centerpiece of the summer meeting at the Spa. "No, no, no," McPeek said outside of his barn at annex off the Oklahoma Training Track Thursday morning. "A 3-year-old filly against the colts in the Breeders' Cup Classic? Unless it fell apart." The plan moving forward for...

'TDN Rising Star' Mindframe (Constitution), who led into the final furlong of last month's GI Belmont Stakes before his inexperience cost him the final leg of the Triple Crown, rates the marquee in Saturday's GI NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park, a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar in early November. A $600,000 Keeneland September purchase campaigned by the formidable team of Mike Repole's Repole Stable and Vinnie Viola's St Elias Stable, the Maryland-bred won his seven-furlong Gulfstream debut by a...

The Todd Pletcher-trained trio of Fierceness (City of Light), Antiquarian (Preservationist) and Mindframe (Constitution) all visited the track Friday morning in preparation for upcoming starts in the GI Belmont S. held at Saratoga. 'TDN Rising Star' and Champion 2-year-old Male Fierceness marked his first work since finishing off the board as the favorite in the GI Kentucky Derby earlier this month. Working in company with stablemate Mindframe, the pair covered a half-mile in :50 flat over the Oklahoma training track, galloping out in 1:02 2/5, 1:14 3/5 and 1:28 2/5....