Confidence Game Makes Waves for Candy Ride

Few stallions have written more headlines in the last 18 months or so than Gun Runner. His spectacular first crop—now 4-year-olds—contains no less than 16 stakes winners, six grade 1, including champion Echo Zulu and classic winner Early Voting. As far as this year's Kentucky Derby (G1) trail is concerned, however, it's Gun Runner's 24-year-old sire, Candy Ride (ARG), who is making waves. He has two individuals who have won points-paying races in the Withers Stakes (G3) victor, Hit Show, and Confidence Game, who shot to the top of the points list with an upset in the Feb. 25 Rebel Stakes (G2). (We should note that Gun Runner is sire of Rebel runner-up Red Route One, who sits fourth on the leaderboard although he has yet to win a stakes). If Confidence Game lines up on the first Saturday in May, he will figure as one of the more experienced horses in the race, as he's already made seven starts. Although he undoubtedly benefited from the extremely fast early pace in the Rebel—fractions of :22.75 and :46.17—Confidence Game didn't score as a deep closer, as he was only 4 1/2 lengths back at the half, and was within 1 3/4 lengths after six furlongs. We'll also note that he's improved with nearly every start, although the Rebel did represent a big step forward from his Lecomte Stakes (G3) third, his first stakes placing, in his previous start. Confidence Game is the 110th stakes winner for Candy Ride, who also has 17 grade 1 winners to his credit, including Gun Runner, who earned a Horse of the Year title, champion 2-Year-Olds Shared Belief and Game Winner; and other such stars as Twirling Candy, Vekoma, and Separationofpowers. This is a level of success that few would have predicted when Candy Ride retired to John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale Farm in Lexington, standing his initial season at a fee of $10,000 (later moving to Lane's End Farm in Versailles). That modest price was no reflection on Candy Ride's race record, which suggested that he possessed truly exceptional talent. He was a champion in his native Argentina, where he went 3-for-3, including impressive victories in the Clasico San Isidro (G1) on turf, and Clasico Joaquin S. de Anchorena (G1). Brought to the U.S., Candy Ride added a Santa Anita Park 8 1/2-furlong allowance on the dirt; the nine-furlong American Handicap (G2) on turf; and the 1 1/4-mile Pacific Classic (G1), which he took by 3 1/4 lengths from Medaglia d'Oro while setting a track record. At that point, Candy Ride looked as if he might be the best horse in training, but foot problems and a subsequent ankle ligament injury brought an end to his racing career. While his credentials as a runner brooked no argument, Candy Ride's pedigree credentials were a lot less convincing. His sire, Ride the Rails—a grade 2-winning son of the staying Fappiano horse Cryptoclearance—sired only 22 stakes winners in 16 crops (15 in Argentina, one in California), and only two of those, both in Argentina, were able to join Candy Ride as grade 1 winners. Candy Ride's broodmare sire, the French-raced Blushing Groom horse Candy Stripes, was a stud sensation in Argentina, but was represented by just one graded stakes winner from four North American shuttle crops. Incidentally, one intriguing fact about Candy Ride's first crop sired at that $10,000 fee is that it produced four grade 1 winners—Evita Argentina, Misremembered, Capt. Candyman Can, and El Brujo—and although he's now long been one of North America's most successful sires, and his stud fee has risen as high as $100,000 (for his present 3-year-old crop) he's never matched that achievement. It's actually a pattern we often see: a stallion starts off at a modest fee, turns out to be an exceptional sire, but never really substantially improves on that inexpensively conceived first crop. In fact, we've become convinced there is something about a stallion's first crop that goes beyond the quality of mares they attract. Returning to Confidence Game, and moving to his distaff side, his dam, Eblouissante, showed promise early, winning a maiden special weight at Hollywood Park and an allowance optional claiming test at Santa Anita Park on her first two starts, but having only another runner-up spot in an allowance from five subsequent starts. She initially disappointed as a broodmare, too, with only one winner—and that in Mexico—from her first four foals. Despite that, one couldn't imagine a much better pedigree for a potential classic producer. A daughter of Bernardini, she's a half sister to Horse of the Year and three-time champion older mare Zenyatta, one of the all-time great distaff performers in North American racing history. Eblouissante is also three-quarters sister to Treasure Trail (the dam of graded stakes winner and grade 1-placed Long Island Sound) and half sister to Balance, whose victories include the Santa Anita Oaks (G1), Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap, (G1) and Las Virgenes Stakes (G1); to stakes winner Where's Bailey (dam of Zenyatta's grade 2 winning three-quarters sister She's Not Here); and to Harley Rose (dam of stakes winner Belle of the North). Confidence Game's second dam, Vertigineux, a daughter of Kris S., is a three-quarters sister to Restrained, a stakes winner and group placed in France, and subsequently first, second, and third dam of stakes winners, and a half sister to two other European black-type winners. Vertigineux's granddam is the very well-bred In the Offing, a daughter of Hoist the Flag and the stakes-winning Tom Fool mare Mrs. Peterkin. In the Offing was only a minor winner, but she produced the Vineland Handicap (G3) victress Helenska and was also third dam of Canadian champion turf mare Sweetest Thing (who was the best horse sired in North America by Candy Ride's broodmare sire, Candy Stripes, and whose dam was by a son of Roberto out of a daughter of In the Offing, and so bred on very similar lines to Vertigineux). In addition to In the Offing, Mrs. Peterkin produced three black-type winners, among them Sweet Alliance, heroine of the Kentucky Oaks (G2), and subsequently dam of the Irish Derby (G1) winner Shareef Dancer. The sixth dam of Confidence Game, Legendra, has been a very successful tap-root mare, ancestress of more than 20 grade 1 winners, including such well-known horses as Mizzen Mast, Mrs. Warren, Lady of Shamrock, Royal Chariot, and Kimari. The family is one of the longest established in North America, tracing back to an unnamed daughter of the stallion Cub, who was imported to New York from England about a decade prior to the Revolutionary War. This branch of the family traces back through Artless, a sister to the great mare Artful and ancestress of a Kentucky Derby winner, Monarchos. This is the 'I' mtDNA line, and Confidence Game has an usual buildup of this haplogroup, which supplies five of the eight horses in the third generation of the pedigree. Confidence Game is one of 19 stakes winners from 145 starters (13%) for Candy Ride out of mares by A.P. Indy line stallions, the others including Game Winner and grade 1 scorers Ollie's Candy and Mastery. He's the first stakes winner for the sire out of a Bernardini mare, but Candy Ride also has four stakes winners—including the previously mentioned Hit Show—out of mares by Tapit, who like Bernardini is an A.P, Indy/Fappiano cross, Fappiano also appearing in Candy Ride's sire line.