The undefeated Twirling Candy, another in the line of Candy Ride-sired
stakes winners, leads a small but competitive group of 3-year-olds in Sunday's
66th running of the Grade II, $300,000 Del Mar Derby at 1 1/8 miles on the
Jimmy Durante Turf Course.
Twirling Candy, trained by John Sadler for the Craig
Family Trust, won at will in Del Mar's Oceanside Stakes on opening day, July
21, and has put together a string of five impressive workouts since, including
bullet efforts in three of his last four outings. He finished his serious work
with a 6-furlong drill in 1:11 flat last Saturday.
Expected to offer steepest competition to the colt
are Kid Edward, who was second to a runaway win by Sidney's Candy in the Grade
II La Jolla Handicap, and Summer Movie, who was fourth in that race.
Royal F J is fresh from breaking his maiden in his
11th try, and Fantastic Pick is only two races out of the claiming ranks but
has won two in a row. The sixth prospect is the Simon Callaghan-trained
Jairzihno, who will be supplemented to the race for $3,000.
Twirling Candy will be ridden by Joel Rosario,
Fantastic Pick by Corey Nakatani, Kid Edward by David Flores, Royal F J by
Rafael Bejarano, Summer Movie by Victor Espinoza, and Jairzihno by Patrick
Valenzuela.
All will carry 122 pounds.
The Derby
is the fifth race on the card.