Lindy Farms‘ Ready for Candy delivered a dominant performance at Saratoga on Saturday, breaking her maiden by 7 3/4 lengths in a $100,000 maiden special weight on the turf.
The 3-year-old filly by Twirling Candy, now trained by Philip Antonacci, controlled the 1 1/8-mile contest from start to finish as the even-money favorite. She completed the distance in 1:48.60 over firm turf.
Ready for Candy showed early eagerness, establishing the lead heading into the first turn and maintaining command throughout before drawing away impressively down the stretch. Inesperee, a daughter of Flintshire (GB), finished second.
The dark bay filly began her career as a juvenile under trainer Michael DePaulo, compiling a solid stakes resume in Canada. She finished second in Woodbine’s Catch A Glimpse Stakes last summer before placing third in the Grade III Mazarine Stakes and second in the Princess Elizabeth Stakes in Toronto last November.
Saturday’s victory marked her first start since transferring to Antonacci’s barn and her 2024 debut.
Ready for Candy is out of the stakes-placed More Than Ready mare Enoree, who has produced several active runners including 5-year-old gelding Tiburon (Good Magic), 4-year-old filly Bolt Enoree (Bolt d’Oro), and 2-year-old colt Mister Blue (Maclean’s Music). Enoree has been bred to Essential Quality for next term.
The winner comes from an accomplished female family that includes Canadian champion 3-year-old colt Woodcarver (Woodman). Her second dam is Canadian multiple stakes winner Woodsmoke (Langfuhr), who produced graded stakes winner Grand Bili (City Zip).
Ready for Candy has changed hands several times at auction, RNA’ing for $70,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale before selling for $62,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s October Yearling Sale. She later brought $60,000 at OBS April in 2023 and $400,000 at Fasig-Tipton in February 2024.
Bred in Ontario by Mark Dodson, Ready for Candy now boasts a career record of 8-1-3-2 with earnings of $162,171.
