Undefeated Ollie's Candy Moves to Turf for San Clemente

Paul and Karen Eggert's homebred Ollie's Candy handled the challenges of her first stakes effort so well, trainer Bill Morey is ready to throw more at her July 21 in the $200,000 San Clemente Stakes (G2T) at Del Mar.

In her first start around two turns and on dirt, the 3-year-old Candy Ride  filly edged grade 1-placed Thirteen Squared by a neck last time out in the June 16 Summertime Oaks (G2) at Santa Anita Park. Prior to that, she dazzled in two starts sprinting on the synthetic at Golden Gate Fields with wins by 6 1/2 and 7 3/4 lengths.

BALAN: Ollie's Candy Scores in Summertime Oaks

"Was I surprised (she won the Summertime Oaks)? No," Morey said July 19 at Del Mar. "If I bring a filly to a grade 2 race who has only run twice, obviously we like her a lot. You can never expect to go win like that, but I wasn't surprised terribly."

Morey said the surface Ollie's Candy runs on is less important than running the filly at the right time, but based on her pedigree, the grass should be just fine. Out of Afternoon Stroll, who won the 2009 Appalachian Stakes (G3T), she's also a half sister to Celestial Sighting, who won her debut on grass at Saratoga Race Course in 2015 and placed in the Bolton Landing Stakes on the Saratoga turf two weeks later.

"The main thing is taking the races as they come," Morey said. "We'd rather keep her here locally, and we've always wanted to try her on the turf. We could have run her last go-round on the turf, but the timing was better for the dirt race."

Ollie's Candy is the only graded winner in the 14-filly field, but the rest have something she does not—wins on turf.

Ms Bad Behavior and War Heroine are both stakes winners on the lawn, and the former came in second last time out in the Providencia Stakes (G3T). Animosity, Pursuing the Dream, and Ms Peintour are also graded stakes-placed.

Ollie's Candy got a feel for the Del Mar turf course July 16, when she breezed four furlongs in :49 4/5 under jockey Corey Nakatani, and Morey said the feedback was good.

"She's dead fit, so it was just to get her out over the course, and that's what we got accomplished," Morey said of the work. "Corey was happy with the way she handled the grass."

Entries: San Clemente S. (G2T)

Del Mar, Saturday, July 21, 2018, Race 8

• Grade IIT
• 1m
• Turf
• $200,000
• 3 yo Fillies
• 5:37 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Rockin Ready (KY)	Joseph Talamo	118	Philip D'Amato	8/1
2	2Ms Bad Behavior (ON)	Kent J. Desormeaux	120	Richard Baltas	9/2
3	3Flammetta (KY)	Geovanni Franco	120	Richard Baltas	12/1
4	4Miss Sienna (GB)	Mike E. Smith	118	Philip D'Amato	5/1
5	5Ahimsa (KY)	Evin A. Roman	120	Peter Eurton	30/1
6	6Dulce Ride (KY)	Rafael Bejarano	118	Richard Baltas	20/1
98	7Streak of Luck (CA)	SCRATCHED	0	UNKNOWN	-
7	8Animosity (KY)	Drayden Van Dyke	118	Patrick Gallagher	6/1
8	9West Palm Beach (IRE)	Flavien Prat	120	Simon Callaghan	6/1
9	10War Heroine (KY)	Tyler Baze	120	Peter Miller	6/1
10	11Pursuing The Dream (IRE)	Victor Espinoza	120	James M. Cassidy	20/1
11	12Lexington Grace (IRE)	Gary L. Stevens	120	Ian Kruljac	15/1
12	13Ms Peintour (KY)	Stewart Elliott	120	Brian J. Koriner	20/1
13	14Ollie's Candy (KY)	Corey S. Nakatani	123	William E. Morey	6/1