Ready for Candy Faces Familiar Group in Sands Point

The connections of three starters in the $200,000 Sands Point Stakes (G2T) are hoping their 3-year-old filly can move forward off her finish in the Winter Memories Stakes (G3T). There's also one of them that would be quite happy to experience some deja vu. With the top four finishers in the Sept. 20 Winter Memories returning for the Oct. 18 Sands Point at Aqueduct Racetrack, it's Lindy Farms' Ready for Candy who will be trying to add on to a winning streak in the 1 1/8-mile turf stakes that attracted 8 3-year-old fillies. "She seems like a filly in good form now," trainer Philip Antonacci said. "She's improving and hopefully she has another good effort in her or a repeat performance of what she did in the Winter Memories and it's good enough on Saturday. She's doing well, so it's all systems go." A Twirling Candy filly bred in Ontario, Ready for Candy is a perfect 2-for-2 for Antonacci and Lindy since she was bought for $400,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale Feb. 3 on the advice of bloodstock agent Jacob West. She was 0-for-7 for her original connections, though she raced in stakes five times and placed on three occasions. Antonacci gave her an 8 1/2-month break before she romped to a 7 3/4-length maiden win Aug. 17 at Saratoga Race Course. She returned a month later in the mile Winter Memories and surged to a 1 1/2-length lead in midstretch before hanging on by a nose over the late-charging Paradise City. "She came into form this August," Antonacci said about his filly, who was the third choice in the Winter Memories. "We gave her some time off after we bought her and we knew she was doing well before the maiden race. The step up to stakes company in her second start for us was another big test and she passed it. She keeps giving us confidence that she will continue to move forward." Ready for Candy was bred by Mark Dodson out of the More Than Ready mare Enoree. Owned by C Two Racing Stable, Shining Stables, Paul Braverman, and Timothy Pinch, Paradise City fell a nose shy of claiming her initial stakes win in her first start on turf. Sent off at 27-1 odds, she bobbled at the start but was no more than 2 lengths behind at any call then closed from 1 1/2 lengths back at the eighth pole to miss by inches. Trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., the daughter of McKinzie was a distant third in the July 5 Iowa Oaks. Magdalena Racing, Savvy Stables, and Stephen Dervenis' Decadent also made her turf debut in the Winter Memories. A Girvin 3-year-old bred in Florida, she was making her fourth career start for trainer Kenny McPeek and rallied from seventh in the field of 8 to miss by 2 lengths at 26-1 odds. Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, William Strauss, and Michael Caruso's Griselda (FR) was fourth in the Winter Memories by 2 1/2 lengths while making her second United States start for trainer Chad Brown. A City Light (FR) filly, she won an Aug. 6 allowance optional claimer at Saratoga in her American debut. She has won two of her seven starts with two seconds.