Ready for Candy Faces Familiar Group in Sands Point

The connections of three starters in the $200,000 Sands Point Stakes (G2T) are hoping their 3-year-old filly can move forward off her finish in the Winter Memories Stakes (G3T).

There's also one of them that would be quite happy to experience some deja vu.

With the top four finishers in the Sept. 20 Winter Memories returning for the Oct. 18 Sands Point at Aqueduct Racetrack, it's Lindy Farms' Ready for Candy  who will be trying to add on to a winning streak in the 1 1/8-mile turf stakes that attracted 8 3-year-old fillies.

"She seems like a filly in good form now," trainer Philip Antonacci said. "She's improving and hopefully she has another good effort in her or a repeat performance of what she did in the Winter Memories and it's good enough on Saturday. She's doing well, so it's all systems go."

A Twirling Candy   filly bred in Ontario, Ready for Candy is a perfect 2-for-2 for Antonacci and Lindy since she was bought for $400,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale Feb. 3 on the advice of bloodstock agent Jacob West.

She was 0-for-7 for her original connections, though she raced in stakes five times and placed on three occasions. Antonacci gave her an 8 1/2-month break before she romped to a 7 3/4-length maiden win Aug. 17 at Saratoga Race Course.

She returned a month later in the mile Winter Memories and surged to a 1 1/2-length lead in midstretch before hanging on by a nose over the late-charging Paradise City .

"She came into form this August," Antonacci said about his filly, who was the third choice in the Winter Memories. "We gave her some time off after we bought her and we knew she was doing well before the maiden race. The step up to stakes company in her second start for us was another big test and she passed it. She keeps giving us confidence that she will continue to move forward."

Ready for Candy was bred by Mark Dodson out of the More Than Ready mare Enoree.

Owned by C Two Racing Stable, Shining Stables, Paul Braverman, and Timothy Pinch, Paradise City fell a nose shy of claiming her initial stakes win in her first start on turf. Sent off at 27-1 odds, she bobbled at the start but was no more than 2 lengths behind at any call then closed from 1 1/2 lengths back at the eighth pole to miss by inches.

Trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., the daughter of McKinzie   was a distant third in the July 5 Iowa Oaks.

Magdalena Racing, Savvy Stables, and Stephen Dervenis' Decadent  also made her turf debut in the Winter Memories. A Girvin   3-year-old bred in Florida, she was making her fourth career start for trainer Kenny McPeek and rallied from seventh in the field of 8 to miss by 2 lengths at 26-1 odds.

Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, William Strauss, and Michael Caruso's Griselda  was fourth in the Winter Memories by 2 1/2 lengths while making her second United States start for trainer Chad Brown. A City Light  filly, she won an Aug. 6 allowance optional claimer at Saratoga in her American debut.

She has won two of her seven starts with two seconds.

Insights from Thoro-Graph

• Winfinity  jumped way forward to a big one on dirt in July. Her last two, on turf, were not as strong, but still good enough to put her in the mix here, and she could be ready for a forward move back towards her top.
• Griselda will take money because of her connections, but she's never run fast enough to contend here and gives no indication of impending short-term improvement.
• Ready for Candy ran even better than it looked last time, as she was wide on both turns. Either of her two tries this year would make her tough to beat here.
• Pretty Picture  is a wild card. She hasn't run fast enough in either of her two starts to get it done with these, but her last was in the slop, and she could be ready for a new top.
• Paradise City saved ground on both turns last time, and so got within a nose of Ready for Candy without running nearly as well. On the one hand, that effort is unlikely to get her close again, on the other it was her first turf try, and she has better figures on dirt to run back to.
• Decadent is another with good dirt figures that has to show she can do it on grass.

Thoro-Graph performance figures are calculated based on a race's time with adjustments for beaten lengths, track speed, ground loss, weight carried, and, when necessary, wind. The lower the number, the better the race. Complimentary sheets for this week's race can be found online at Thoro-Graph. Learn more about how to analyze Thoro-Graph data at www.thorograph.com/basics.