Eye Candy caught her connections a little by surprise with a string of stakes performances this term and she’ll aim to take the top spot for the first time in Saturday’s Listed Warstep Stakes (2000m).
A daughter of Darci Brahma, Eye Candy is trained at Cambridge by Shaune Ritchie and Colm Murray, who admitted that at first glance, her compact frame didn’t create a huge impression.
“She’s as genuine as the day is long, but when we started training her, I told the owners that I didn’t know whether she had much talent,” Ritchie said. “But once we had her on a diet and she wasn’t at the buffet first, that helped her condition and she improved very quickly.
“Funnily enough as a trainer, you’re meant to train them apparently.”
That improvement was evident from the first time she stepped up to a mile, winning her maiden and soon picking up her first stakes-level placing behind Hinekaha in the Listed Oaks Prelude (1800m). She added a gallant third in the Group 3 Sunline Vase (2100m) to her record but found the mile-and-a-half of the Group 1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) a bridge too far.
“She simply didn’t run the trip out in the Oaks, which looked quite obvious,” Ritchie said. “She set an even sort of tempo and when the pressure went on at the 300, she was lacking.
“She’s Group Three placed and Listed placed at the 2100 and 1800, so coming back to 2000 is probably the sweet spot for her at the moment.
“She’s run well in the Sunline and got that elusive Group placing, which sets her up as a broodmare. Once they turn four, it’s much harder to get that black-type and we’re training very much for the breeders (Llanhennock Trust). We’d love to get a stakes win for her before then.”
Eye Candy made the journey to Riccarton Park earlier in the week for the fillies’ feature, where she will take on a full-field currently headed by Dream Of The Moon at $3.60 with horse betting sites. The Christchurch venue has copped plenty of rain in recent times, but the possibility of a heavy surface isn’t of great concern to Ritchie.
“She’s a little beauty, Orla Casey (travelling foreperson) took her out on the track the day after she arrived and some of the locals said ‘that’s a good-looking colt’,” he said.
“She’s obviously held her condition pretty well.
“In training, she’s seemed to handle the wet ground okay, so we’re not too worried about that on Saturday at this point.
“She’s had a busy season, but she keeps eating and keeps improving so this will be her swansong.”
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