First winner for Sidney’s Candy comes at Del Mar

Sooner Time, a two-year-old chestnut filly trained by Peter Eurton, became the first winner for sire Sidney’s Candy when taking the 1ST race on Thursday during the second week of the 2015 Del Mar summer meet.

The Kentucky-bred lass was making her career debut in the 5 1/2-furlong maiden claiming contest and broke a bit slow before rushing up on the heels of her rivals on the backstretch. Jockey Mario Gutierrez took a tight hold and maneuvered the filly outside nearing the turn.

Sooner Time easily collared the leaders and opened up in the lane under a hand ride to be 3 1/4 lengths clear on the wire. She stopped the clock in 1:06.06, not an exceptionally fast time but appeared to be under wraps once putting some space between herself and the others.

Sidney’s Candy took two tries to earn his initial win but also got the job done at Del Mar in 2009. The chestnut would go on to be a contender on the next year’s Kentucky Derby (G1) trail, hitting the trifecta at Santa Anita Park in the Santa Anita Derby (G1), San Felipe S. (G2) and San Vicente S. (G2), but was unable to factor on the sloppy main track at Churchill Downs come Derby Day.

The Kentucky-bred appeared to prefer the synthetic tracks that were so popular at the time and transferred that form to win a couple of Grade 2 turf contests in the La Jolla H. and Fourstardave H. Sidney’s Candy went unplaced in his only two attempts on dirt but banked more than $1.1 million in career earnings while running up a 17-7-4-1 scorecard. He set a couple of track records along the way, on both the synthetic and aforementioned turf.

Sidney’s Candy is out of the Storm Cat mare Fair Exchange, making him a full brother to Grade 3 victor Sweet Swap, and counts as his second dam multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Exchange.

The son of Candy Ride entered stud in 2012 at WinStar Farm near Versailles, Kentucky, and still resides there for a stands and nurses fee of $15,000.

Sidney's Candy photo courtesy of Benoit Photos