Candy Savouring Breeders' Cup Experience

Even as Henry Candy followed Limato (Ire) (Tagula {Ire}) through the backstretch on Thursday morning, the rising sun suddenly flooded both the lane to the racetrack and the beckoning stretch itself with a dazzling stream of light. It really did seem as though his champion's path to the GI Breeders' Cup Mile might be paved with gold.

Admittedly Candy himself presented a faintly incongruous spectacle, this septuagenarian traditionalist entering the spirit of things so gamely that he was even sporting a baseball cap. But while his own bearing remained as understated and self-deprecating as ever, this master of the old school is unmistakably embracing his debut on an American racetrack with real excitement. And, even more importantly, his horse seems no less enthused.

This is unusually significant in an animal whose quirks can verge on the homicidal. “I was doing interviews when he won at Chantilly and felt something trickling down my hand,” Candy said. “It turned out that he had caught me while we were trying to saddle him. It didn't heal for three weeks. I hadn't even realised at the time. But that's this horse. He's lightning fast, front and back end. Fortunately he puts his athleticism to good use.”

As usual, it was a two-man job to saddle Limato for a light breeze over the turf circuit and a gate trial. “He's a nightmare, very touchy,” Candy said. “He doesn't like having his legs touched, and absolutely hates anything round his girth.”

By a happy paradox, the difficulties Limato sets Candy and his staff about the stable are in direct contrast with his professionalism when the gates open. And that is precisely why the 4-year-old gelding has every prospect of proving equally effective over an eighth furlong, having made his last three starts over six, five and seven, respectively. Whatever the trip, Limato reliably switches off and on at his rider's request. He settled just as obligingly when dropped in trip in the G1 Nunthorpe S., picking up smartly for second, as he did when winning the G1 July Cup and G1 Prix de la Foret either side.

“He's an incredibly intelligent horse,” Candy explained. “He will listen. If Harry [Bentley, jockey] says: 'Come here old lad, not quite yet,' then he'll be quite okay with that.”

Candy has long been adamant that Limato will see out a mile, his horses having been notoriously off colour the only time he tried–when fourth in the G1 Lockinge S on his reappearance.

“I'd have loved to run him in the Queen Anne or the Sussex, but unfortunately the ground went against him both times,” he said. “He certainly looked as though he would get another furlong in the Foret and, while it's a long way to come for an experiment, I think it will probably work.”

Having made his name with such middle distance stars as Time Charter (GB) (Saritamer) and Master Willie (GB) (High Line {GB}), Candy has impressively reinvented himself as a specialist with fast horses in the second half of his career. Necessity has admittedly been the mother of invention. Without either the patronage of superpower breeders or the resources to compete for Classic pedigrees at the sales, Candy has had to box clever with commercial yearlings. Twilight Son (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}), another Group 1 scorer this season in the Golden Jubilee S., was admittedly homebred. But his sire, himself a top-class sprinter for the yard, was bought for £36,000–while Candy once found a G1 Cheveley Park S. winner in Airwave (GB) (Air Express {Ire}) for just £12,000. Both were Doncaster yearlings and Limato himself is another graduate of the same ring, bought by Peter and Ross Doyle for £41,000. “Obviously I can't take credit for that,” he said. “But it is nice that a horse like this doesn't have to cost millions. It gives everyone hope, doesn't it?”

Evidently he was not the most imposing of youngsters. Despite an unbeaten four-race streak at two, Candy says that Limato was far from physically precocious. “He was still a runt of a horse even as a 3-year-old,” he said. “How he achieved what he did I don't know. He's a very late developer, and I think he's still improving and growing. It sounds a stupid thing to say but even seeing him in the barn this morning, after only a week away, I thought he was bigger again. He's now a proper looking individual, who looks like he belongs here.”

And that is evidently how Limato himself also views his adventure, having responded positively to every novelty. Candy is well versed in the perils of transporting horses by plane. When he was learning the ropes in Chantilly, he once had custody of a particularly unruly customer on a flight that was initially aborted until he could be calmed down. It is just as well they were able to take off again, because the other passengers included a colt named Sea-Bird on his way to the Derby.

“But Limato absolutely loved everything about his trip,” Candy said. “He's been having the most wonderful time throughout. He'll love the big day as well: he'll be showing off to the crowd, sticking out his tongue and all that. They tell me he's been bucking every morning. It's good to see. He's in the right frame of mind. When he heard that bell ring in the gate, Harry said it was the quickest he'd ever jumped and that he'd nearly fallen out the back door. And I was happy with the way he handled the track, too, sprinting round that bend on the correct lead. The fact that he changed legs as soon as he got into the straight doesn't matter.”

The only thing that dismayed Candy all morning, in fact, was the sight of Alice Springs (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) as she joined the Ballydoyle horses in their first venture out of the barn. “She looks absolutely magnificent,” he said. “And obviously there's Tepin (Bernstein) as well. It is a very competitive race, and I'd say they'll probably be fairly well strung out by the time they get to the first bend. The track's very tight, but we knew that before we came here, and it looks in wonderful shape. I think he should be suited by the way the race is likely to be run. I just hope we don't end up outside anything that won't turn, but that's in the lap of the gods.”

Candy, accustomed to the solitude and grandeur of his home gallops, appeared to be stimulated by the whole environment– the bustle of the barns, the communal training, the peerless setting. “I've seen it so often on television but now here I am and it's absolutely beautiful,” he said, gesturing towards the mountain backdrop. “It's great fun, all the activity around. To win this race would probably rank as high as anything I've done in my career. Obviously I was very lucky to get Time Charter so early, but this is something different. I've never had anything suitable to bring here. The owners were quite keen to bring Time Charter, but I thought she'd had enough by the time she ran in the Arc and vetoed that. But this horse is probably the best I've ever trained. And he's loving it all. And, because of that, so am I.”