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Twirling Candy, Game on Dude drill at Del Mar Trainer John Sadler took a spot part-way up the Del Mar grandstand, trained his binoculars on the two horses in the midst of a serious exercise over the Polytrack Sunday morning and communicated to the riders via a walkie-talkie. "Steady, steady, not too fast," he said as they came around the turn into the stretch. "Perfect," Sadler said as they crossed the finish line together. Malibu S. (G1) star TWIRLING CANDY (Candy Ride [Arg]), with Rafael Bejarano up, went a half-mile in :48 flat on Sadler's stopwatch, officially :47 4/5 on that of clocker Steve Stute. Twirling Candy broke off a length behind stablemate Domonation (Maria's Mon), eased up alongside turning into the stretch and stayed there before galloping out past the wire five furlongs in 1:00 2/5. Domonation's official time was :48 for four furlongs. A sharp winner of the 1 1/8-mile Californian S. (G2) two back, Twirling Candy was beaten all of a neck when third in the 1 1/4-mile Hollywood Gold Cup (G1) last time out. It remains to be determined whether Twirling Candy will try 1 1/4 miles again in the Pacific Classic (G1) on August 28. Jenny Craig and the other ownership partners, Will Farish and Marty Wygod, plan to meet with Sadler soon to make a final decision. Twirling Candy exited the track at around 7:30 a.m. (PDT). About 90 minutes later, Santa Anita H. (G1) winner and Hollywood Gold Cup near-misser GAME ON DUDE (Awesome Again), with Chantal Sutherland in the irons, took to the track. The Bob Baffert charge went five-eighths in 1:00 3/5 with track clockers noting splits of :26 and :48 4/5. Game on Dude gave stablemate Awesome Patriot (Awesome Patriot) a four-length head start, but reportedly was pulling away from his younger stablemate by the end of the work. Grade 3-placed stakes scorer Awesome Patriot's official clocking was 1:01 2/5 for five furlongs. "He worked very nice," Baffert said of Game on Dude. "He's going in the Pacific Classic." Baffert's FIRST DUDE (Stephen Got Even), winner of the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 9 at Hollywood Park, remains stabled at the Inglewood track. Meanwhile, in other Pacific Classic news, CARACORTADO's (Cat Dreams) third-place finish in Saturday's Eddie Read (G1) didn't affect the spirits of trainer Mike Machowsky the morning after. Caracortado was 3 3/4 lengths behind winner Acclamation (Unusual Heat) and beaten a half-length by Jeranimo (Congaree) for the place in the turf event. "He looks great this morning," Machowsky said. "I don't know why the (Read) turned out the way it did. The other horse (Acclamation) ran awful good, and my horse may have come back a little too quick off the race at Hollywood Park." Machowsky was alluding to the July 2 Shoemaker Mile (G1), where Caracortado was just outdueled by Courageous Cat (Storm Cat). The Pacific Classic remains very much on Machowsky's radar screen. "I really want to try him on the main track here," Machowsky said. "He has trained better on this surface here than on any surface we've ever had. If he trains good and remains healthy, I'll run him in the Pacific Classic "He really loves it down here, and it seems that horses that like it do well. Maybe we can make him the next Richard's Kid for the next couple of years." Richard's Kid (Lemon Drop Kid) won the 2009 and 2010 runnings of the Pacific Classic for Baffert.
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