Candy Boy, Cool Cowboy Off to Dubai
Updated: July 21, 2015 at 4:17 pm
Candy Boy (Candy Ride {Arg}), winner of the 2014 GII Robert B. Lewis S. and placed behind Eclipse Award candidates in the GI Santa Anita Derby, GII Los Alamitos Derby and GII Pennsylvania Derby, has been accepted to run at the Dubai International Racing Carnival. The gray colt will continue his career with trainer Doug Watson, according to a revised list of Carnival acceptors released earlier this week by the Dubai Racing Club.
Bred and raced by Lee and Susan Searing, Candy Boy was the longshot runner-up to Shared Belief (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the 2013 GI CashCall Futurity before besting Chitu (Henny Hughes) by a half-length in the Lewis. Third to California Chrome in the Santa Anita Derby, Candy Boy rounded out the exacta behind Shared Belief in the inaugural Los Alamitos Derby and closed good ground over a speed-favoring strip when third to subsequent GI Breeders’ Cup Classic hero andTDN Rising Star Bayern (Offlee Wild) at Parx Sept. 20. Possible goals for Candy Boy could include the final round of the G1 Al Maktoum Challenge Mar. 7 as well as the G1 Dubai World Cup three weeks later.
Cool Cowboy (Kodiak Kowboy) will also be conditioned by the former Kiaran McLaughlin assistant. Formerly trained by Dale Bennett for Savoy Stable, Cool Cowboy won Tampa’s Inaugural S. in December 2013 and was first or second in all five starts last year at three, winning the Golden Circle S. at Prairie Meadows and the Sophomore Sprint S. at Mountaineer Nov. 11.
While the ownership of the two 4-year-olds was not specified, Watson’s existing clients include sons of Sheikh Mohammed as well as former Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.