Danzing Candy © Del Mar Thoroughbred Club
Danzing Candy, the 8-5 morning line favorite for Saturday’s Grade II $200,000 Pat O’Brien Stakes, suffered a career-ending fracture to an ankle Friday morning during a routine gallop on the eve of the race.
“Just took a bad step,” owner Ted Aroney, said by telephone from his Rancho Santa Fe residence. “The timing is bad … we came pretty close … these things happen in racing.”
Danzing Candy, an Aroney (Halo Farms) homebred son of Twirling Candy, had six wins, one second and a third in 11 starts and earnings of $700,930. He put together two three-race winning streaks, one encompassing the second through fourth starts of his career and the other in his most recent three.
Career stakes victories were recorded in the Grade II San Felipe at Santa Anita in March of 2016, the Grade III Lone Star Park Handicap in May of this year and the Grade II San Carlos at Santa Anita in July.
As a 3-year-old he followed the San Felipe win with a fourth-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby and was 15th to Nyquist in a 20-horse field the 2016 Kentucky Derby after setting a fast early pace from the extreme outside post.
Aroney said surgery to insert a pin would be scheduled at an as-yet undetermined date. Also to be determined are arrangements for the 4-year-old colt’s career at stud.