The complexion of Saturday’s $200,000 Pat O’Brien (G2) was suddenly altered with the Friday afternoon news that Danzing Candy, the 8-5 morning-line favorite, was injured. Not only was the Bob Baffert trainee out of the “Win & You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) at Del Mar, but it was a career-ender.
Owner Ted Aroney says Danzing Candy has a fracture above his ankle & is retired. Clockers said he stumbled @ 1/8 pole during gallop this a.m
— Jeremy Balan (@BH_JBalan) August 25, 2017
Important to note that Aroney said Danzing Candy’s “career is over, but his life is fine.” https://t.co/SpILPhEt18
— Jeremy Balan (@BH_JBalan) August 25, 2017
“Just took a bad step,” breeder and co-owner Ted Aroney told Del Mar publicity. “The timing is bad…we came pretty close…these things happen in racing.”
Danzing Candy will undergo surgery to repair the fracture by inserting a pin at some point, but no date for the procedure has been set.
Bred by Aroney’s Halo Farms and raced in partnership with Jim and Dianne Bashor, Danzing Candy was prominent on the 2016 Kentucky Derby (G1) trail. For original trainer Cliff Sise Jr., the Twirling Candy colt scored his first two wins at Santa Anita by a combined margin of nine lengths. Danzing Candy made it three in a row with a front-running victory in the San Felipe (G2), defeating Mor Spirit and Exaggerator. Winging it way too fast on a sloppy track didn’t work in the Santa Anita Derby (G1), where he wound up a distant fourth to Exaggerator, and his early aggressiveness also cost him when 15th behind Nyquist in the Kentucky Derby.
Danzing Candy was subsequently transferred to Baffert. In his debut for the barn in last summer’s Affirmed (G3), he argued throughout and went down by a half-length to Dalmore.
Shelved for eight months, Danzing Candy returned with a useful third in the Joe Hernandez over Santa Anita’s downhill turf. That set him up for the main track, and he went on a winning spree in what turned out to be his three final starts. Beating future San Diego (G2) winner Accelerate in an optional claimer, Danzing Candy romped in the Lone Star Park (G3) and successfully reverted to sprinting in the San Carlos (G2).
Danzing Candy was produced by the Songandaprayer mare Talkin and Singing, a half-sister to $4.3 million-earning turf star Better Talk Now. Best remembered as the hero of the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1), Better Talk Now succumbed to complications from colic surgery just this past June.
Stud plans are pending for the four-year-old Danzing Candy, who retires with a mark of 11-6-1-1, $700,930.
