Twirling Candy, Game On Dude Work at Del Mar

Trainer John Sadler took a spot part-way up the grandstand, trained his binoculars on the two horses in the midst of a serious exercise over the main track 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.

Twirling Candy, with Joel Rosario up, went a half-mile in 48 flat on Sadler’s stopwatch, 47 4/5 on that of clocker Steve Stute. Twirling Candy broke off a length behind stablemate Domonation, 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 :48.00 for four furlongs.

Jenny Craig and the other Twirling Candy owning partners, Will Farish and Marty Wygod,  plan to meet with Sadler soon for purposes of making a final decision regarding Twirling Candy’s participation in the Pacific Classic on Sunday, August 28.

Twirling Candy exited the track at around 7:30. About ninety minutes later Santa Anita Handicap winner Game On Dude, with Chantal Sutherland in the irons, took the track for trainer Bob Baffert, going 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 a four-length head start, but reportedly was pulling away from his younger stablemate by the end of the work. Awesome Patriot’s official clocking was 1:01.40 for five furlongs.

“He worked very nice,” Baffert said of Game On Dude. “He’s going in the Pacific Classic.”

First Dude, winner of the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 9 at Hollywood Park, remains stabled at the Inglewood track.