Candy Ride’s Remarkable Story

Now that you’re an owner of a 2-year-old son of Candy Ride, let’s get you acquainted with this colt’s terrific sire and his unusual beginnings as a racehorse.

When Candy Ride came to the United States in 2003 to continue his racing career that began in his native Argentina, he brought with him a very unique resume. What many people do not know about Candy Ride is that some of his undefeated performances in South America were not produced over recognized racetracks, such as San Isidro and Hipodromo Argentino De Palermo, the two tracks where he combined to win three races from as many starts as a 3-year-old in 2002.

Candy Ride, in fact, launched his racing career as a 2-year-old over country tracks in Argentina, or what we referred to as bush tracks in the United States. These unsanctioned and informal race meets resembled the atmosphere of a county fair and were once very predominant in the depths of Cajun country in Louisiana, where some of racing’s most successful riders, including Kent Desormeaux, Eddie Delahoussaye, and Randy Romero, honed their riding skills as youngsters astride Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, before reaching the big leagues. Locals would gather to place wagers on what often were match races conducted on dusty roads in the middle of nowhere.

Argentina’s version of this custom was quite similar and Frank Mitchell wrote about Candy Ride’s atypical start to his racing career in this Paulick Report story from 2016.

“Although Candy Ride was officially unraced at 2, he had plenty of action,” Mitchell wrote. “The exact number of these races is unknown; nobody was keeping records of them. At these impromptu meets, horse owners in Argentina will grade a length of unpaved road out in the country between farms, and they will make a day or weekend of racing over this temporary racetrack. The purses are small, but the betting can be big. The sums that change hands can sometimes be quite large, and the pressure to find a horse that prospers in these conditions is intense. And as a strong colt with high speed and a great mind, Candy Ride was reportedly able to pull off some handsome coups for his ownership when raced over these short distances.”

As Mitchell reported, zero records were kept of Candy Ride’s dominance at country tracks, but his success and the sheer speed he displayed at those no-holds-barred events led his then owner to jump on the opportunity to test the colt’s mettle at sanctioned race meets. And when Candy Ride went undefeated in three starts, including a pair of Group 1 races, and was named champion miler, he was sold to U.S.-based owners Sid and Jenny Craig (the weight-loss guru) and the colt settled into the Southern California barn of legendary horseman Ron McAnally, who was well known for scouting and sourcing talent in South America, including the champion racemare Bayakoa.

McAnally guided Candy Ride to win three races in as many starts, including the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic, the signature event of the iconic Del Mar summer meet, before the horse was retired undefeated in 2005 and sent to stud, where he is now considered one of the world’s most influential and breed-shaping sires of all time. Among Candy Ride’s countless successes in the breeding shed at Lane’s End in Kentucky is his son Gun Runner, a phenomenal racehorse who amazingly might just prove to be an even better stallion, after siring a Classic winner from just his first crop, Early Voting, who emerged victorious in last Saturday’s Preakness Stakes. You can read more about Gun Runner’s ascension as a sire here.

As unusual as Candy Ride’s humble beginnings at country tracks were, he has been nothing short of remarkable, as both a racehorse and sire, and we’re pumped to see what Spirit ’20 has in store for us as our first-ever Candy Ride purchase.