Ollie’s Candy a First for Eggerts

[Wandering Eyes]

Paul and Karen Eggert have been in the business for over a decade, keeping one or two mares to breed each year. With a breed-to-sell business model, the San Francisco resident did not have much opportunity to experience racing at the highest level, at least not until Ollie’s Candy (Candy Ride {Arg}) came along, who is their first graded winner and first Grade I scorer. The Eggerts hope she will also become their first Breeders’ Cup winner in this Saturday’s GI Distaff and their biggest sale to date Wednesday at Keeneland November, where she is catalogued as Hip 43.

“We have owned horses now for just about 13 years,” Paul Eggert said. “My father-in-law John O’Neill got into horses in the mid-70s. We started with racehorses and bought our first mare nine or 10 years ago. We keep just one or two mares, a very small operation. We breed to sell and if we don’t get our reserve, we will keep them and race them, but ideally, we breed to sell.”

He added, “We have learned in this business that mares like this don’t come around very often, a homebred that is a Grade I winner and hopefully a contender in the Breeders’ Cup.”

The Eggerts purchased the mare Afternoon Stroll (Stroll) for $85,000 at the 2015 Keeneland January Sale with Ollie’s Candy in utero. The resulting dark bay filly, who RNA’d for $45,000 at KEESEP, is what many call a plain brown wrapper, but she showed some promise from the start.

“I keep my mares with Sally Lockhart at Ballyrankin Stud,” said Eggert. “During sales prep, Sally said this was a filly I should set a reserve I would be happy with and keeping her wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen. She really liked her work ethic and her mindset and how she moved in the round pen. We had her broke at the end of her yearling year and couldn’t quite get her to the races as a 2-year-old, but she was always moving forward and always had a good mindset for work and training.”

Ollie’s Candy won her first two starts impressively last spring at Golden Gate, giving her connections the confidence to step up in class in the GIII Summertime Oaks. She rewarded their faith with a neck success in her first try on dirt at Santa Anita, giving her owners/breeders their first graded win as well.

“It was a great feeling,” Eggert said. “She had won her first two by seven or eight lengths each, so we certainly thought she would be tough. It was a race that fit in the schedule before Del Mar started. We knew it was a big ask, but she proved she was up for the challenge.”

Missing by a neck in both the GII San Clemente S. and GI Del Mar Oaks on grass last summer, Ollie’s Candy was transferred from William Morey to John Sadler when the former dispersed his stable. She did not make her first start for this outfit until the May 27 GI Gamely S. on the lawn, where she finished seventh to Vasilika (Skipshot), but she improved to second next out in the grassy GIII Wilshire S. June 22. The dark bay provided the Eggerts with their next career high when switched back to the dirt, capturing the GI Clement L. Hirsch S. July 28.

“She ran in the two graded races for 3-year-olds at Del Mar and lost each of them by a neck,” Eggert said. “She was very competitive in her next two races and we had high hopes for her to win a Grade I. She came through.”

Ollie’s Candy was a good third last time in Santa Anita’s GII Zenyatta S. Sept. 29, an effort that gave her connections enough confidence to continue on to the World Championships.

“We are excited about her chances,” Eggert said. “She seems to like the surface at Santa Anita. I thought she ran a nice race in the Zenyatta. She finished third, but she made up ground in the stretch, which not a lot of horses are doing at Santa Anita. It is a tough field, but it is the Breeders’ Cup.”

Just a few days after the Breeders’ Cup, Ollie’s Candy is scheduled to sell with Taylor Made during Book 1 of the Keeneland November Sale.

“We decided it was option we wanted to have,” Eggert said of the decision to enter the mare in KEENOV. “She would have two more races after we entered her. We will make a final decision with John after the Breeders’ Cup. We are enjoying this as we go through it and will decide about the sale on Sunday.”

Ollie’s Candy is only four, so should the Eggerts keep her, they could race her another year or she could even join their tiny broodmare band.

“Keeping her could certainly be a possibility,” Eggert said. “I have never been in the position before of having a Grade I-winning mare and deciding whether to keep or sell her, but I’d say I would lean towards selling her.”

Keeneland November kicks off Wednesday with a single Book 1 session starting at noon.

 

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