Holy Candy turned in a highly impressive performance this afternoon to stamp himself as a colt of very high quality, rolling past Eaton Hall in the stretch of a one-mile maiden special weight to win for the first time in four attempts.
Ridden to victory by Joel Rosario, Holy Candy settled off the pace in the fourth position early on as Eaton Hall, trained by Bob Baffert, set a slow pace of :24.69 and :48.64 while leading clearly. Longshot Gophari was racing in second, followed by Seal the Deal along the rail. Stratify was the early trailer after an awkward start.
As the field made their way down the backstretch and around the far turn, Eaton Hall's lead continued to grow, even though jockey Martin Garcia was barely asking him to go. Following three-quarters of a mile in 1:11.91 -- meaning that Eaton Hall had run his third quarter in a blazing :23.27 -- the colt led by 2 1/2 lengths over Gophari, who was in turn three lengths clear of Seal the Deal. Holy Candy was another half length back, trailing the leader by six lengths. Seeing that he had been rating off of a very slow pace, he undoubtedly had a strong stretch kick ready to be unleashed when the field entered the homestretch. But seeing how strongly Eaton Hall was running on the front end, with Garcia motionless aboard him as he turned for home, Holy Candy's task appeared to be virtually impossible.
And to be perfectly honest, it was. With a quarter of a mile to run, Holy Candy trailed by six lengths. Eaton Hall closed his seventh furlong in :11.82. But during that furlong, Holy Candy made up three lengths, meaning that he closed his own seventh furlong in around :11.22 -- an unbelievable fraction. Furthermore, Holy Candy continued to pour on the speed, roaring past Eaton Hall in deep stretch to win going away by 3 1/2 lengths, running his final eighth in around :11.65, giving him a final quarter mile of :22.87. The final time for the mile was 1:35.98.
Eaton Hall held on well to finish second, 1 3/4 lengths clear of Seal the Deal. Stratify and Gophari trailed the field.
The winner is trained by John Sadler and owned by Craig Stables and Donkey Island Racing.
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