Candy Ride Success With Storm Cat Repeating With Vekoma

The story of Candy Ride (ARG)'s rise from retiring to stand at fee of $10,000 to a place among the stallion elite began with a remarkable first crop. That crop, foals of 2006, contained nine stakes winners. Five of these were graded but, more notably, no less than four earned grade 1 honors. The first of these was Capt. Candyman Can, who took the King's Bishop Stakes (G1)—now known as the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes. He was out of a mare by Storm Cat son, Storm Creek, and a few months later Evita Argentina took the La Brea Stakes (G1) to earn honors as her sire's second winner at the highest level. She was out of a mare by Storm Cat son Forest Wildcat and thus continued a budding trend that has evolved into a constant thread throughout Candy Ride's long and impressive stud career. Now 20 years after the birth of his first foals, two of his current graded stakes winners Navajo Warrior and Deloraine are, respectively, out of a mare by Storm Cat and by Storm Cat's grandson Discreet Cat. Overall, Candy Ride has 30 stakes winners, 22 graded (35% of all his graded winners) and six grade 1 winners (30% of his scorers at that level) out of mares by Storm Cat, his sons, and grandsons. That includes what would generally be conceded to be his best runners: Gun Runner, who was 2017's Horse of the Year and champion older dirt male and now a major sire (out of a mare by Storm Cat son, Giant's Causeway), and ill-fated champion 2-year-old Shared Belief, a five-time grade 1 winner (out of a mare by Storm Cat). History now appears to be repeating itself with a son of Candy Ride. The first crop of Spendthrift Farm's young son Vekoma has been no less impressive than that of his sire. That crop is 4, and to date it's produced 18 stakes winners (12.8% to starters), nine graded stakes winners, and perhaps most astonishingly no less than 34 black-type horses (24%). What the crop did lack was a grade 1 winner, but that omission was remedied in style over the weekend as Vekoma's 4-year-old son Forged Steel emerged as a decisive winner of the Goodwood Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park. That was the gray or roan's sixth win in 21 starts and his second stakes win following a 9 1/2 lengths success in this year's Hollywood Gold Cup Stakes (G2). Forged Steel's transition from a useful runner to a top-class performer has coincided with a change in his connection's perception of him from a turf sprinter/miler to a middle-distance dirt horse. As far as distance is concerned, that may be down to Vekoma being thought of as a sprinter/miler, a consequence of a three-race 4-year-old campaign that saw him take the Sir Shackleton Stakes and Carter Handicap (G1) at 7 furlongs and the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) at a mile. However, after taking the Nashua Stakes (G3) on the second of two starts at 2, the highlight of the three outings in Vekoma's second season was a 3 1/2 lengths success in the 9-furlong Blue Grass Stakes (G2). So with that in mind, it's no shock to see him sire a top-class horse effective at 10 furlongs. The echo of history enters the equation when we see that, as with Candy Ride's Capt. Candyman Can, the first grade 1 winner for Vekoma is out of a mare by a son of Storm Cat, and in both cases the broodmare sires are out of a Mr. Prospector mare. Forged Steel is out of Scorecard, a daughter of Tale of the Cat, whose dam is Yarn. Scorecard recorded four of her five wins when running for a tag but did manage to capture a 6-furlong allowance on the all-weather at Presque Isle Downs. She twice went through the ring carrying Forged Steel, making just $8,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton July Breeding Stock Sale, and then $30,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale. Forged Steel sold for $80,000 as a Fasig-Tipton July Sale yearling and resold for $190,000 at the 2024 Ocala Breeders' Sales March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. Scorecard is out of Sanibel Star, a 2-year-old winning daughter of Unbridled's Song, making her a half sister to the Henny Hughes colt Star Contender, who won Canada's Cup and Saucer Stakes at 2. Sanibel Star's dam Hangin On a Star, defeated males in the 1987 Breeders' Stakes, the third leg of the Canadian Triple Crown and also captured the La Prevoyante Stakes and Canadian Handicap. She was dam of another Cup and Saucer Stakes winner in Comet Shine and also of stakes winner and Canadian 2012 Broodmare of the Year Misty Mission. Hangin On a Star is ancestress of a total of 16 stakes winners, including Irish Mission, 2012 champion 3-year-old filly and champion turf female in Canada, and other graded stakes winners Mission of Joy, Time to Dazzle, Patience Game, French Beret, and African Night Sky. Hangin On a Star is out of 1980 Canadian Broodmare of the Year Hangin Round, who is dam of Canadian champion Rainbow Connection, and whose other notable descendants include champion U.S. 2-year-old filly Tempera, other Canadian champion Rainbows For Life, and White Heart, successful in the 2000 Charles Whittingham Handicap (G1T) and 2001 Turf Classic Stakes (G1T). The dam of Hangin Round, Auburn's Pride, was stakes placed in England and imported in 1963. She was bred by Major Lionel Holliday—best known as breeder of Vaguely Noble—out of the 1957 Sandown Stud Produce Stakes winner Patroness, tracing to Miranda, who is the sister to the "peerless" Pretty Polly and dam of the 1918 Irish Derby winner King John. Forged Steel is one of five stakes winners (and one of two out of Tale of the Cat mares) by Vekoma out of mares by sons or grandsons of Storm Cat. There is more to that in this particular pattern as Vekoma's broodmare sire Speightstown is by Gone West (a son of Mr. Prospector) out of a mare by Storm Cat, where Tale of the Cat reverses that cross, as he is by Storm Cat out of a Mr. Prospector mare. For good measure, Forged Steel's granddam, Sanibel Star, is by a Mr. Prospector line stallion out of a mare by a son of Storm Cat's grandsire Northern Dancer.