'Candy' Brings Friends on a Memorable Ride

A quick glance at the past performances of GI Kentucky Derby hopeful Danzing Candy (Twirling Candy) reveals that the fleet-footed 'TDN Rising Star' is a homebred campaigned by Ted Aroney's Halo Farms–an impressive accomplishment to be sure. But the basic information on the lines of a program does little justice to the extensive ties of friendship, both old and new, that the colt represents.

Aroney said the development of Danzing Candy, owned in partnership with Jim and Dianne Bashor, into a Kentucky Derby candidate is made even more special because of his long-standing friendship with prominent owner Jenny Craig and her late husband, Sidney. The Craig family campaigned both Danzing Candy's sire, Twirling Candy, and grandsire, Candy Ride {Arg}, to Grade I victories in Southern California. As such, the prospect of Danzing Candy making it into the starting gate for the Run for the Roses is particularly satisfying to Aroney.

“It feels great,” the owner/breeder said. “It feels great with this one, especially because I bred him.”

Aroney was right there beside the Craigs for many of their memorable wins, and said the exploits of Candy Ride were particularly influential in also capturing the imagination of his close friends, the Bashors.

“I'm looking forward to visiting Twirling Candy and Candy Ride when I'm back [in Kentucky],” said Aroney, who holds interests in the pair of Lane's End stallions as an advisor to Jenny Craig. “I've owned a few horses with Jim and Dianne Bashor previously. They were also close to Sid and Jenny Craig when we had Candy Ride, and they were rooting for Candy Ride when he was at his best. They've always wanted to have a good horse–one horse for the Derby is what they asked for. I said that's pretty tough to do, but they've had a few horses every year and gotten some good ones.”

Aroney, a consultant who served as founding director of McHenry Metals Golf Corporation and Odyssey Golf, has owned some “good ones” of his own over the years, including GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Dakota Phone (Zavata) and once-beaten GI Hollywood Futurity and GI Haskell Invitational H. victor King Glorious (Naevus). Such triumphs are no small feats for a man who decided to venture into Thoroughbred ownership after years of trips to Santa Anita as a dedicated race-goer.

“My father started taking me to the track when I was 12 at Santa Anita, and that's how it started, and we'd go every Saturday,” Aroney recalled. “I was around it and liked it, and mostly I enjoyed the races betting-wise, so I decided to get involved in ownership and breeding.”

The success of King Glorious remains a major part of Aroney's identity in the Thoroughbred business. Fondly recalling the colt's final career start–a three-length romp in the 1989 Haskell–the Californian noted that he hopes that Danzing Candy's sophomore season can follow a similar trajectory.

“King Glorious was an inch behind Easy Goer,” Aroney reflected metaphorically, referring to Ogden Phipps's Hall of Fame colt as the measuring stick for others of his generation. “I'm getting the same feeling with Danzing Candy. I have the Haskell on my mind right now. I liked that track, Monmouth, when I went with King Glorious, and I see the race is $1 million.”

In many ways, the careers of Danzing Candy and many other Halo Farms runners are also illustrative of the renewable tie between Aroney and the Craigs. Given his familiarity with Candy Ride's pedigree, Aroney does not hesitate to fill his stable with descendants of the undefeated 2003 GI Pacific Classic hero.

“I have some Twirling Candies that are 2 years old, and yearlings and babies,” explained the owner, who has roughly 10 horses in training at the moment. “I'm looking to develop them and always looking to buy a horse, too. We keep our eyes open. [Trainer] Jerry [Hollendorfer] and I usually buy a couple horses a year as yearlings or at the 2-year-old in training sales. I'm very fortunate.”

In a game where fortune plays a major role, Aroney joked that he is playing it conservative when it comes to making plans for Derby weekend. Although with every passing day it becomes more likely that Danzing Candy will be in the starting gate on the first Saturday in May, the veteran owner is still reminded of his 2013 GII San Felipe S. winner Hear the Ghost (Ghostzapper), who was knocked off the Derby trail one month prior to the race with a knee injury.

“I made no reservations for myself,” Aroney quipped. “The horse has reservations. He's got a stall and everything. But none for myself. I made a lot of reservations for Hear the Ghost, and they were non-refundable.”

Aroney added that, if all goes according to plan, he and his wife Leslie will accompany the Bashors on their Louisville-bound private jet.

As for Danzing Candy, the dark bay posted a bullet six-furlong workout in 1:12 flat at San Luis Rey Training Center for trainer Cliff Sise, Jr. this past Saturday, his first move since setting a scorching pace and fading to finish fourth over a sloppy strip in the GI Santa Anita Derby. Aroney said the GII San Felipe S. winner is slated to work once more next Saturday, and ship to Churchill Downs in the early morning hours of May 2. The gambler-turned-owner concluded that Danzing Candy deserves a pass for his uneven effort over an unfamiliar surface in Arcadia.

“The last time he ran he had a track that was sloppy and muddy, and [jockey] Mike [Smith]'s comment was that the mud and slop hit his belly, and he had never had that happen to him before,” Aroney related. “So, he said that he couldn't get him to relax because of that. We'll see him right on the pace [again].”

If Aroney has a keen sense of what to expect through years of experience, the Bashors represent new faces in the game–welcome additions to the pool of California owners that occasionally has a tendency to stagnate. The couple has designed their silks to bear the red and gold colors of Jim's beloved alma mater, the University of Southern California.

“[Jim and Dianne] are great owners and they're extremely excited,” Aroney remarked. “They can't believe it. They sent somebody out to Churchill Downs to take a tour of it before they made all of their reservations and daily planning on what they're going to do there. So that's how excited they are. It's great for the business to get some new people in the business like this in California. We need it.”