Twirling Candy

LEXINGTON, KY - Bidding continued to be solid for the prized lots, but the market was increasingly polarized as the second and final Book 3 session concluded Saturday in Lexington. Trainer Bob Baffert and Donato Lanni purchased the day's highest-priced offering, going to $450,000 to acquire a colt from the first crop of Unified on behalf of Mike Pegram, Paul Weitman, and Karl Watson. During Saturday's session, 239 horses sold for $18,364,200. The average was $76,838 and the median was $52,000. With 110 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency FULL BRO TO ANALYZE IT UNVEILED BY BROWN AND PARCELLS 10th-SAR, $72K, Msw, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, 6:18 p.m. ET Shirelle (Point of Entry) will carry the colors of Bill Parcells's August Dawn Farm for this first go. The $150,000 KEESEP yearling is a full brother to Brown-trained Analyze It, a 6 1/4-length debut romper in October of his juvenile season, earning 'TDN Rising Star' honors. Analyze It took a pair of Grade III events in his next starts, and just missed in a trio of...

Grade I winner and millionaire Concrete Rose (f, 4, Twirling Candy--Solerina, by Powerscourt {GB}) will be offered as a racing or broodmare prospect during the premier Book 1 of this year's Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, which begins Monday, Nov. 9, and follows the Breeders' Cup World Championships at Keeneland Nov. 6-7. Concrete Rose has won six of seven career starts and has bankrolled $1,218,650, led by wins in the 2019 GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S. and Saratoga Oaks Invitational S. She will be consigned by Lane's End, agent for...

Collusion Illusion (Twirling Candy) got the better of his elders and earned a spot in the gate for the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, holding off a late rally from Lexitonian (Speightstown) to take Del Mar's GI Bing Crosby S. Settling near the back of the pack, the 9-5 chalk ran off the fence with only Lexitonian, who trailed the field by several lengths, beat as the remaining five scrambled for control through a sharp first quarter in :21.58. Wildman Jack (Goldencents) gained a very narrow advantage as the half went...

The lightly raced sophomore Collusion Illusion (Twirling Candy) will try to give his elders a run for their money Saturday in Del Mar's GI Bing Crosby S., a "Win and You're In" event for the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint S. Opening his account with a pair of wins, including the GII Best Pal S. last summer, he was pulled up when trying two turns in the GI American Pharoah S. in September. Returning May 17, he scored a decisive victory in a six-panel optional claimer at Santa Anita and repeated...

Those who backed him into 2-5 would have had a few nervous moments late, but Collusion Illusion kicked it in for the final furlong and rolled past pacesetting Ragtime Blues en route to an ultimately convincing victory in the GIII Laz Barrera S. at Santa Anita. Ragtime Blues won the break and dictated terms early, while Collusion Illusion, last of the five in the opening exchanges, tugged Flavien Prat into a share of second after a quarter in :21.90. The front-runner pinched a break without really being asked by Mike...

6th-Santa Anita, $59,088, Alw (NW2$X)/Opt. Clm ($62,500), 5-17, 3yo/up, 6f, 1:10.03, ft COLLUSION ILLUSION (c, 3, Twirling Candy--Natalie Grace, by First Dude) bested a hard-knocking field of older rivals to assert himself as a sophomore to watch in the right season to get off to a belated start. A debut winner at Del Mar last July, the :10 flat OBSAPR breezer added a 7-1 score in the GII Best Pal S. there three weeks later, but came up empty early when stretching out for the GI American Pharoah S. Sept....

Two-time GI Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Doug O'Neill made the ground-breaking move of sending a string of around a dozen horses to train at Meydan and tackle the three-month Dubai World Cup Carnival this season, and the Southern California-based conditioner got off the mark in the desert on Thursday when Fore Left (Twirling Candy) went gate to wire in the one-mile G3 UAE 2000 Guineas. Fore Left carries the colours of Paul Reddam, who also owned both of O'Neill's Derby winners, I'll Have Another (Flower Alley) and Nyquist (Uncle Mo). Fastest...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY--The Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearling Sale opened Sunday evening with a session of steady action capped by a son of Constitution who sold for $340,000 to trainer John Terranova. "It was a solid opening session to the New York-Bred sale," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. "There was lots of interest across the board. We continue to see the strength of the New York-bred market. It was on display again tonight." The two-day auction has a slightly different format this year, with Sunday evening's somewhat abbreviated session of...