Twirling Candy

Ready for Candy Tough As Nails to Win Winter Memories

Game as they come late, Ready for Candy (Twirling Candy) refused to be denied and timed her final jump to perfection to claim the GIII Winter Memories Stakes by a nose. The eye-catching filly began her career in the Great White North with trainer Mike DePaulo, and amassed a respectable career in his care with three stakes placings at Woodbine to her credit before she was entered into the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky February Mixed Sale earlier this season. She would change hands to new owners Lindy Farms for $400,000 and be...

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Twirling Candy's Johnny's Red Storm Takes Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint Gate to Wire

In a day good for the runners who made the pace, Johnny's Red Storm (Twirling Candy) made every pole a winning one and took home the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint Stakes Sunday afternoon. The George Weaver charge came into this race off a sterling debut Aug. 3 at Saratoga, where he similarly took a field of auction-price restricted maidens gate-to-wire by four lengths. Training well in New York since then and shipped down for the race, the betting public liked him to the tune of 8-5 odds, and he was...

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Breeder Spotlight, Presented By Keeneland: All About Family For Kilwin's Breeders

When Andrew Schwarz and his sister Wendy Schwarz-Gilder decided to turn their longstanding enthusiasm for the Turf into a deeper commitment, in 2017, the option that best matched their outlook was a modest breeding program. If that meant taking their time, patiently building each page, so be it. All they knew was that they wanted to work with others of a similar disposition: people who gave time to each other, and to their horses. Schwarz, after all, is a real estate developer in New Orleans. "And in real estate, five...

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Twirling Candy's Ready For Candy Sweet Off The Bench In The Spa Opener

1st-Saratoga, $100,000, Msw, 8-17, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/8mT, 1:48.60, fm, 7 3/4 lengths. READY FOR CANDY (f, 3, Twirling Candy--Enoree {SP}, by More Than Ready), who began her career as a juvenile in the care of trainer Michael DePaulo, was the runner-up last summer in the Catch A Glimpse Stakes at Woodbine. The filly's campaign ended in November when she was third in the GIII Mazarine Stakes and finished second in the Princess Elizabeth Stakes--both in Toronto. Making the switch to Philip Antonacci's shedrow, the dark bay made her seasonal...

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'We Are Ecstatic': More Records Fall at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga

A week on from the blockbuster Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, more records fell at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion Monday when the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearling Sale concluded with highwater marks for gross, average and a record-tying median. During two sessions, 199 New York-bred yearlings sold for a $23,870,000. The average was $119,950--up 15.1% from a year ago, while the median remained constant at $85,000. With 55 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 21.7%. It was 26.3% a year ago. "This sale hit the quinella," Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning...

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Gift Box Sold to Saudi Arabian Interests, Will Stand in Kingdom Starting 2026

Grade I-winner Gift Box (Twirling Candy) has been sold to Saudi Arabian interests and will join their breeding ranks beginning in 2026, Lane's End announced Friday afternoon. The GI Santa Anita Handicap hero, and GI Gold Cup at Santa Anita Stakes runner-up, was purchased by HRH Prince Abdlaziz Bin Mousd Bin Saud ALSaud after he had stood at Lane's End in 2025 for a fee of $5,000. Hailing from the Machmer Hall breeding program, the grey had been purchased by W.S. Farish for $135,000 as a weanling from the 2013...

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Summer Breezes Sponsored By OBS: Friday, August 8, 2025

Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings at Saratoga and Del Mar and at Ellis Park, which attract its fair share of high-priced juveniles from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes, sponsored by OBS Sales, highlights debuting and stakes-entered 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, including links to their under-tack previews. Here are the horses entered for Friday at Saratoga and Ellis Park.  Friday, August 8,...

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Breeding Digest: Credit To Blame

Anyone kindly persevering with this column as it gropes through the pedigree maze will by now be familiar, perhaps wearily so, with my proclivity for broodmare sires. From all that tremendous sport at Saratoga last Saturday, then, you won't be surprised that I'm going to focus on the fact that two of four Grade I winners--Kilwin (Twirling Candy) and World Beater (Oscar Performance)--were out of Blame mares. Though approaching the evening of his career at 19, the Claiborne stallion remains highly precocious in this slow-burning sphere. His daughters have not...

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Twirling Candy Colt Litigation Lays Down The Law Again at Ellis

4th-Ellis, $102,850, Alw, 8-4, (NW2TL), 3yo, 5 1/2fT, 1:00.97, fm, nose. LITIGATION (c, 3, Twirling Candy--Argue, by Storm Cat), unplaced in two tries in maiden allowance company at Gulfstream in March, benefitted from a class drop to graduate by better than three lengths in a rained-off $75,000 maiden seller in the Churchill slop May 30. A near 8-1 chance for a first-level allowance over this course and trip July 13, the homebred overcame an awkward draw to win clear and was the 3-5 jolly to maintain the winning streak here....

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Saratoga Notebook, presented by NYRA Bets: Whitney Day Ranks Right Up There as One of Brown's All-Time Best

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- There have been some days for trainer Chad Brown. Some real big days. Remember Arlington Million day in 2019? He won all four graded stakes races, including all three GI races. He has won a bushel full of Breeders' Cup races in his career; more than once he has had multiple winners. Brown has a pair of GI Preakness Stakes on his resume. What happened Saturday might just trump them all. At his hometown track, Brown blitzed his competition, winning four races, capped off by the...

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Twirling Candy Colt Johnny's Red Storm Graduates For Coach Pitino At The Spa

2nd-Saratoga, $80,000, Msw, 8-3, 2yo, 5 1/2fT, 1:01.66, fm, 4 lengths. JOHNNY'S RED STORM (c, 2, Twirling Candy--Estoril, by Into Mischief) was unveiled for co-owner Rick Pitino's outfit as the 9-5 choice here. The favorite sprinted out of the blocks to a clear lead up the backstretch. Making every pole a winning one through the top of the lane, the 2-year-old donned cap and gown for the St. John's coach by four lengths to the good over Capanaparo (Caracaro). The winner's unraced dam--a half-sister to GSW Tide of the Sea...

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Good Customer Tom's Magic to Make King's Plate Bow

In How To Talk To Customers, co-author Tom Larkin wrote that the key in business relationships was to "Make A Great Impression on the Customer"--known by his signature acronym M-A-G-I-C. "Results matter, and so does the process used to get those results," the Preface pithily preached. According to those that knew him best, Larkin built a successful consulting company which focused on the development and enhancement of a business's number one concern, outreach. He traveled the world giving dynamic presentations on what has become the lost art of customer service....

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