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Candy Ride Filly Takes Them All the Way in Edgewood

Florent Geroux nursed HEAVENLY SUNDAY (f, 3, Candy Ride {Arg}–Alien Giant, by Giant's Causeway)'s speed to perfection as the pair went wire to wire at 9-1 to annex the GII Edgewood S. presented by Forcht Bank Friday on the GI Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs. A stampede followed them under the line with Revalita (Fr) (Recoletos {Fr}), Mission of Joy (Kitten's Joy), and Pipilio (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) just necks and heads apart vying for the place and show spots.

When the gates flew, Heavenly Sunday hopped and stuttered out of the stalls and immediately got sandwiched hard between two fillies as she tried to maintain her forward momentum and gain position. Undaunted, she extricated herself from the tight squeeze and shot to the front. Stablemate Flashy Gem (Bolt d'Oro) at 9-2 tracked while Heavenly Sunday set all the pace, ears pricked under a hard hold through fractions of :23.19 and :47.89. Ears still flicking on the turn as Flashy Gem went after her, Heavenly Sunday held sway in the stretch and was game all the way to wire, not for catching. Her final margin of victory was three-quarters of a length.

“I think there was an honest pace but I don't think I was going extremely fast,” said Geroux, who was winning the Edgewood for the third time since 2016. “It was just a good rhythm for her to keep her comfortable. It looked like the horse was trying to make a run for me at the end but my filly had a major turn of foot.”

One of the more lightly raced fillies in the Edgewood, Heavenly Sunday races for William Harrigan's Miacomet Farm. The $170,000 Keeneland September RNA had debuted last September at two with a seven-length score in a turf maiden special weight at Horseshoe Indianapolis, then followed up with an allowance at Keeneland before being put away for the winter. She has since been third in Gulfstream's GIII Sweetest Chant S. Feb. 4 and Keeneland's GII Appalachian S. Apr. 8. Heavenly Sunday was one of four runners in the Edgewood coming out of the Appalachian.

“We've been pointing towards this race since last fall at Keeneland,” said trainer Brad Cox, who also won the Unbridled Sidney S. earlier on the Churchill card with Breeders' Cup heroine Caravel (Mizzen Mast). “I was disappointed in her first two races this year because I thought she would win. She put it all together today.”

Pedigree Notes:

Heavenly Sunday's win makes her the 53rd graded winner among the 108 black-type winners for Lane's End's stalwart sire Candy Ride (Arg). While she's also the 197th stakes winner out of a daughter of the late Giant's Causeway, what's especially notable here is the cross. Four of Candy Ride's graded winners are from Giant's Causeway mares, including Horse of the Year and superstar young sire Gun Runner, as well as Churchill GSW and 2019 GI Kentucky Oaks runner-up Liora.

Randal Family Trust bought the winner's dam in foal to Malibu Moon at the 2018 Keeneland November sale for $240,000 and bred her the next year to Candy Ride, resulting in Heavenly Sunday. Alien Giant was not bred for 2021 and lost her Game Winner foal in 2022 before delivering a colt by The Factor Jan. 29 this year. Although Heavenly Sunday marks the first graded winner in the immediate family in a few generations, Alien Giant's fourth dam, Victorian Queen (Victoria Park), was both the champion grass horse and champion older mare in Canada in 1975. She produced no fewer than three Grade I winners: Judge Angelucci (Honest Pleasure), War (Majestic Light), and Peace (Naskra).

Friday, Churchill Downs
EDGEWOOD S. PRESENTED BY FORCHT BANK-GII, $500,000, Churchill Downs, 5-5, 3yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 1:42.40, fm.
1–HEAVENLY SUNDAY, 118, f, 3, by Candy Ride (Arg)
1st Dam: Alien Giant (SP), by Giant's Causeway
2nd Dam: Alienation, by Rock Hard Ten
3rd Dam: Alienated, by Gone West
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($170,000 RNA Ylg '21 KEESEP). O-Miacomet Farm (William Harrigan); B-Randal Family Trust (KY); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Florent Geroux. $291,400. Lifetime Record: 5-3-0-2, $428,833. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Revalita (Fr), 118, f, 3, Recoletos (Fr)–Ebareva (Ire), by Machiavellian. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. (€12,000 Ylg '21 ARQDOY). O-Wise Racing LLC; B-Sarl Darpat France (FR); T-Chad C. Brown. $94,000.
3–Mission of Joy, 120, f, 3, Kitten's Joy–Smart Mission, by Smart Strike. ($32,000 Ylg '21 FTKOCT). O-RyZan Sun Racing, LLC and Madaket Stables LLC; B-Sam-Son Farm (ON); T-H. Graham Motion. $47,000.
Margins: 3/4, NK, HD. Odds: 9.68, 8.51, 7.21.
Also Ran: Papilio (Ire), Liguria, Girl Named Charlie, Cairo Consort, Sabalenka, Comanche Country (Ire), Flashy Gem, Preliminary (GB).
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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2023 Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Wasabi Ventures

As we approach the opening of the 2023 breeding season, the TDN staff is once again sitting down with leading breeders to find out what stallions they have chosen for their mares, and why. Today, we catch up with George Adams at Housatonic Bloodstock, who serves as the Director of Stallions and Breeding for Wasabi Ventures Stables.

WHY NOT TONIGHT (5, Tapiture—Pay the Lady, by Not For Love), to be bred to Nashville

This filly became Wasabi's first stakes winner last year when she won the All Brandy Stakes at Laurel, and she also won an allowance for them after they claimed her at Monmouth. Originally a $57,000 yearling, she has good size and is well-made, and we're sending her to one of the more exciting freshman stallions in this year's crop in Nashville. A wickedly fast sprinter, he's a gorgeous specimen, and the cross is a good one. Plus, she's a half to a stakes horse of last year by Great Notion, from the same Gone West sire-line.

GUN SLINGIN (4, Gun Runner—Easy Tap, by Tapit), to be bred to Liam's Map

Wasabi really upped its game at the Keeneland November Sale, buying five mares for a total of $247,000, and this one was the most expensive at $77,000. A maiden mare, she's a full-sister to the TDN `Rising Star' of last summer Disarm (Gun Runner). We wanted to send her to a proven horse, and she gets that in Liam's Map, who should still have some upside as his best-bred crop comes to the races this year. This mating results in loads of line-breeding to some great Tartan Farm names like Fappiano, In Reality, Dr. Fager, Aspidistra and Rough n Tumble.

AMERICAN THRILLER (4, American Pharoah—Thrilled, by Uncle Mo), to be bred to Candy Ride (Arg)

Another purchase from Keeneland November who will be bred for the first time in 2023, she is another for whom we tried to find a proven stallion to fit. Physically, she's a great, big filly, so should match nicely with Candy Ride. And he has done very well with the Empire Maker sire line from which this filly hails. Her family can also show some versatility on the track, and Candy Ride should play into that, as well.

MAD GRACE (8, English Channel—Floating Island, by A. P. Indy), to be bred to Aloha West

This was a hard-knocking, versatile racemare that Wasabi claimed and who will be bred for the first time in 2023. She has a lot of page, and there are turf horses and dirt horses, sprinters and routers on it. We're sending her to Aloha West, a first-year stallion that is going to get every chance from the folks at Mill Ridge. He was exclusively a dirt sprinter himself, but his pedigree contains the same type of versatility that Mad Grace showed, and we won't be shocked if he gets horses that run longer than he did, and on turf. He's a beautifully balanced horse, very nicely-made, and we're excited to have a share in him and send a couple of mares to him.

FLORAL HALL (4, Bodemeister—Painted Lady, by Broad Brush) to be bred to Greatest Honour

Another Keeneland November purchase, this one carrying her first foal by Frosted, she goes to another first-year stallion that we are very high on in Greatest Honour. Physically, he's an incredible specimen, and we think the turn of foot he showed to win those Derby preps for Shug McGaughey over a surface and configuration that should not have suited his style means he's got a huge shot and offers a lot of value where Spendthrift priced him. This mare's family has had plenty of success with Pulpit-line stallions, and a few by Street Cry, who happens to be Greatest Honour's broodmare sire. So we like this pairing a lot.

WILD FOR LOVE (13, Not for Love—Sticky, by Concern) to be bred to Tapiture

One of Wasabi's first broodmares, Wild for Love delivered her first foal for us in the form of stakes winner Local Motive by the Maryland stallion Divining Rod, a son of Tapit. She has a two-year-old filly of '23 by Maximus Mischief that brought $160,000 as a yearling in 2022, but since then we've gone back to that Tapit/Pulpit line with her–she's in foal to Tacitus currently, and we will send her to Tapiture this spring. Tapiture gets such a high proportion of runners and winners, and plenty of stakes horses, too–and his numbers with Not For Love mares are pretty incredible (4-for-4 winners to runners, two stakes winners plus another black-type placed). We hope we get another Maryland-bred runner to earn us breeder bonuses for years just like Local Motive.

WOWWHATABRAT (11, Louis Quatorize—Kim the Brat, by Smart Strike) to be bred to Blofeld

This mare was a warrior, running 74 times over eight years and earning over $300,000. She was stakes-placed at two and four, and comes from the family of New Money Honey, Any Given Saturday, and a good horse named Second of June. After slipping last year, she is carrying her first foal by Jimmy Creed and looks like she'll be our first mare to foal this year. We are going to breed her back locally to Blofeld—the numbers he has put up are pretty amazing, with his first 14 foals to race all having won, and now he's sitting at 29 winners from 37 runners (out of just 50 foals). He had the winners of both Maryland Million two-year-old races in 2022. He has a couple of decent winners out of a full-sister to Wowwhatabrat, and this mating doubles up on Broodmare of the Year Misty Morn, and adds two more crosses of her dam, Grey Flight. Too far back to count as the Rasmussen Factor, but hopefully still effective.

Interested in sharing your own mating plans? Email garyking@thetdn.com.

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Quality Road Heads Lane’s End 2023 Roster At $200,000

Quality Road will lead the pack at the Lane's End stallion barn for the 2023 breeding season, standing for $200,000. Up from $150,000 in 2022, the 16-year-old is responsible for 2022 GI New York S. winner Bleecker Street, GII Rebel S. runner-up Ethereal Road, GI American Pharoah S. runner-up National Treasure, as well as three new 'TDN Rising Stars.' In the sales ring, he had seven yearlings bring seven figures at the 2022 Keeneland September Sale, including the $2.5-million colt who topped the sale.

At $75,000, the same fee he stood for in 2022, Candy Ride (Arg) continues to command the farm's second-highest fee.

First-year stallion City of Light, represented by three black-type winners from his first crop, stands alongside his sire Quality Road and holds steady at $60,000. A Top 10 freshman sire in North America by earnings, City of Light has sired eight winners, including GI Darley Alcibiades S. runner-up and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies pre-entry Chop Chop.

The entire roster, with fees for 2023, will be:

Accelerate – $10,000

Candy Ride (Arg) – $75,000

Catalina Cruiser – $15,000

City of Light – $60,000

Code of Honor – $7,500

Connect – $25,000

Daredevil – $20,000

Game Winner – $30,000

Gift Box – $7,500

Honor A.P. – $15,000

Honor Code – $20,000

Lexitonian – $7,500

Liam's Map – $40,000

Mineshaft – $10,000

Quality Road – $200,000

The Factor – $15,000

Tonalist – $10,000

Twirling Candy – $60,000

Unified – $7,500

Union Rags – $30,000

West Coast – $10,000

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Candy Ride’s Heavenly Sunday Impressive in Keeneland Allowance

5th-Keeneland, $100,145, Alw, 10-28, (NW1X), 2yo, f, 1mT, 1:36.88, gd, 2 3/4 lengths.
HEAVENLY SUNDAY (f, 2, Candy Ride {Arg}–Alien Giant {SP}, by Giant's Causeway) was hammered to 7-5 favoritism on debut Sept. 27 against a Horseshoe Indianapolis 7 1/2-panel maiden turf race, and made it look like a gift when she won by seven, geared down lengths. Once again enthusiastically supported at 8-5 here, she mildly brushed with the inside horse at the jump but secured a ground saving position from midpack early. Advancing between runners approaching the five furlong marker, she loomed the danger around the far turn and slipped to the inside of the leader through a narrow hole at the three-sixteenths. Kicking away in the furlong grounds, she put a comfortable 2 3/4 lengths on Isabel Alexandra (Ire) (Expert Eye {GB}), who experienced tight quarters in upper stretch while searching for racing room. The latter's conditioner claimed foul against Florent Geroux and Heavenly Sunday, but the stewards disallowed it. The second winning filly to the races from two to hit the ground, Heavenly Sunday's dam aborted her 2022 Game Winner foal and visited The Factor for 2023. Alien Giant is a stakes-placed daughter of MGISP Alienation (Rock Hard Ten), herself half to GISP Rally Cry (Uncle Mo). The Grade I black-type extends to the fourth dam Extraterrestral (Storm Bird), who is the half-sister to millionaire MGISW Judge Angelucci, GISW War, and GISW Peace. Sales history: $170,000 RNA Ylg '21 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $82,633. Click for the Equibase.comchart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

O-Miacomet Farm (William Harrigan); B-Randal Family Trust (KY); T-Brad H. Cox.

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