Ontario-sired and -bred CANDY OVERLOAD, a son of Reload, won the Grade 2 Kennedy Road at Woodbine on November 27, his first stakes victory. Four-year-old Candy Overload became the first graded stakes winner for Reload (Hard Spun) and the Kennedy Road winner is from the first crop of his sire.
An exciting, stretch-running sprinter, Candy Overload was overlooked in a good field for the $203,300 Kennedy Road, sent off at 7-to-1 despite coming off a troubled trip in the Vigil Stakes (G3) and a close second-place finish in the Grade 3 Bold Venture Stakes.
The bay gelding was making his second start for trainer Mark Casse and the ownership group of Gary Barber, Adam Wachtel and Leonard Schleifer, which privately purchased the improving horse from breeders Denny Andrews and Sherry McLean’s Northern Dawn Stable.
Andrews and McLean had Red River Rebel (another son of Reload) in the Kennedy Road which was headed by favoured ARZAK, a two-time winning stakes winner at Woodbine who was returning to Ontario after a series of fringe shares in turf stakes. Arzak dueled early with the venerable Silent Poet and the two went fast to the half mile in 44.85. Chasing the pair in third was another Casse/Barber runner, Ice Chocolat (Brz), making his first start on Tapeta.
Silent Poet fought off Arzak into the stretch run but was swarmed by closers late in the 6 furlong dash. Candy Overload, being ridden for the first time by Sahin Civaci, was next-to-last early and flew down the crown of the track in time to win by 3/4 of a length over stablemate Ice Chocolat (Brz) and jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson. Lucky Score, another Ontario-bred, was a fast-closing third.
The time was a solid 1:09.17 on a cool and rainy afternoon.
“Today, the races were playing the speed,” said Civaci who won four races on the day. “But I knew we had to come off [the pace], so that was a little bit challenging. I had a good trip overall. I had the outside and when the horse kicked on down the lane, it was clear and he ran good.”
The superb riding of Civaci got the young rider his third graded stakes win of 2022 and his 5th stakes win overall this year. Not only that, but Civaci has had an impressive rise to the top of the jockey charts since he arrived in 2019. This year he has had more mounts, more wins and more purse earnings than he ever has.
Civaci was 10 when his parents took him to Ankara, Turkey to live and it was at a jockey school there that he learned his trade. Civaci came back to Canada and BC to ride at Hastings Racecourse for six seasons. He moved his tack to Ontario in 2019 and won 22 races from 268 mounts in his first stint at Woodbine. In 2020 he won 28 of 313, and upped that to 31 wins in 2021.
This year he has won 54 races at Woodbine and his mounts have earned $2.4 million. He also winters in Arizona at Turf Paradise where he rides quite a few winners.
Civaci had big news post-Kennedy Road. Not only is he considering going to ride at Oaklawn this winter, but his partner, Alyssa, is expecting the couple’s first child.
Candy Overload is now 4-for-15 with earnings over $307,000.
McLean purchased Candy Overlaod’s dam Mini Candy, by Candy Ride (Arg) for just $2,000 in 2017 at the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages sale. Candy Overload is her first foal. She has a 2-year-old named Candy Wine by Verrazano that was purchased by David Bell as a yearling.
This past August, McLean sold a full brother to Candy Overload for $47,000 to RCC Stable.
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More Sunday: It was nice to see trainer JOHN LEBLANC in the winner’s circle for race 9, just a couple of weeks after the home he shares with wife Maggie and son Douglas burned down. The family escaped but lost everything and a GoFundMe page was set up to help them. The family has had an outpouring of support and fortunately, their horses and barn were not affected. LeBlanc sent out Just Start Me Up for Stunt Stable to win at 39-to-1 in the $23,500 claiming race.
In the winner’s circle for the first time as a trainer (and owner) was Jennifer Stein, who sent out first-time starter THEBACKSTRETCHDUDE to win a maiden/optional claiming dash for 2-year-olds. The Old Forester colt, bred by Anthony and Leslie Russo was bought by Stein (then Tompkins) with Standardbred trainer Isaac Waxman from the well-known Hamilton family for just $3,000.
Thebackstretchdude, named by the Russos for close friend Dennis Lynch, was ridden by Stein’s husband Justin Stein, who was quite animated crossing the finish line.
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