THE CANDY MAN: BARRY BALDWIN PLEASE TAKE A BOW

By Barry Baldwin with Graham Potter | Tuesday, June 4, 2019

The Candy Man has enjoyed the sweet smell of success for seven races in a row now with his impressive winning sequence talking him all the way from Maiden to Group 3 company. The major hardship that The Candy Man has suffered during his career and the enormous mountain he had to climb coming back from severe injury has been well documented and HRO stands in awe of his owner’s belief and persistence and his vet’s knowledge and expertise in bringing the big grey back from the brink. Healing the horse was one thing, turning it back into a racehorse was another thing altogether and that’s where veteran trainer Barry Baldwin needs to take a bow. Here, Barry Baldwin talks to HRO’s Graham Potter about the long road he has followed with The Candy Man and gives an interesting inside view of how The Candy Man has been able to realise his potential and become something of a celebrity..

“The setback occurred after The Candy Man’s first start. He ran at the Sunshine Coast in a 1000m race and it was quite a good run. He made up a lot of ground.

Danny Griffin rode him and he said this horse is going to be ok. He said with a bit of luck he might have run second. (The Candy man finished fifth). Unfortunately, Danny never got back on him again.

“We spelled him. He came back in and we thought we had him ready to win. The day before he was supposed to start again first-up he got caught up in the box and smashed his head. He was a mess … he basically just smashed his jaw. He nearly died.

“He had to have a major operation which cost a lot of money and then he had a couple of minor operations to get some of the plates out … and then he had a bad tooth.

He’s still got forty-six or forty something screws in his head. He originally had fifty-four screws. He also had seven plates in his head and two came out. It was a huge undertaking.

“And then, blow me down, he was healed up and coming right when he played up and got a sequestrum in his hind leg. So, then he had to have an operation on his hind leg.

“So, before we knew where we were, nearly two years had passed since that first start in May 2016.

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“Obviously, when a horse goes through that much it does affect his temperament. He’d been handled that much that … you know … if he didn’t like you, he would let you know.

"Even today.

“Just recently, in fact, at the stables he didn’t like the horse beside him and he charged the wall with his shoulder, like a rugby league player … or like a gridiron player.

"He simply wasn’t going to have that horse next to him and we had to shift the other horse. We put another horse there and he just loves him.

“He eventually came back slowly. He had a third and a couple of seconds and then he won his Maiden at Doomben (over 1660m on December 19, 2018 – a little over two-and-a-half years after his debut outing).

"He was starting to come right and he won that pretty easy. He did miss the start by two or three lengths there though.

“He was on the walker about a week before that when one horse took off and he got a fright.

"Nothing serious … he just got a fright but when I brought him to the Sunshine Coast for a Class 1 run after his Doomben win, and took the blinkers off him, he wouldn’t jump out of the gate and he started about twelve lengths behind them.

“Incredibly he won still won that race but clearly the horse had a problem that we had to try and work out. I certainly didn’t just snap my fingers and things came right. I had many sleepless nights thinking what I could do.

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“It was like being a detective. It took a while but I finally remembered some of the things I had done in my career which could help.

“I’m seventy-five years old. (I’ll be seventy-six in September. I’ve got the same birthday as Winx – I’ve never told anybody that before).

"I’ve had a trainer’s licence since 1965 and I’ve trained nearly two and a half thousand winners so I thought there had to be something that I could draw on from my experience to help me sort out The Candy Man’s problem.

“At first you try and second guess yourself. There are the sleepless nights. You have got to think … because you are never right all of the time … think of the mistakes you’ve made, what you should have done … and it took me about two weeks of going through that to work out why The Candy Man was missing the start.

“I went back and looked at the diary where it said he played up at the walker and I thought … ahh, that’s it. That was about six days before he raced. He got a fright then and that anxiety stayed with him.

“I really thought about that and I remembered a couple of horses that wouldn’t take heavy handling … you know if you pushed them they would fight back. They’d take you on head on.

“So, I decided it was best to try and trick him.

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"What I did was … we had the barrier jump-outs on a Wednesday and we put three or four horses in the barriers and they were ready to go and then, as The Candy Man walked in, we would let them all go straight away.

“The first couple of times he wasn’t real good but the sixth or seventh time … this was over three Wednesdays with Michael Cahill coming up to ride him … he started to get the idea again that, you know, I’ve got to jump.

“It still took us three weeks to a month to get him going again but that was his turnaround.

"He did stand still in a barrier trial again but then he came back and went bang, bang and won all of his races which has been so gratifying to see and so good for his owner Lucky Pippos, who comes to see The Candy Man at the stable every day. He loves the horse.

“When you look back, particularly early in the piece I was probably thinking this horse might never race again, particularly when he hurt that hind leg after all that had gone before … you had to start wondering.

“It has been a long road but I think, even though he had that moment with that other horse recently, he is really enjoying life now. I swim him a lot which he thoroughly enjoys. It takes pressure off his legs and it’s good for his condition.

“Michael Cahill, who has ridden The Candy Man in five of his seven wins, said to me that every time we think we have got him at his top now, next time he just goes better.

“Winning from a Maiden to a Group 3, they just don’t do that … particularly with the authority he does … unless they are something special.

“You can look at it any way you like. From his courage in what he had to overcome to his ability in a race … there is no doubt he is a very special race-horse.

“I’m just so proud of the effort everybody has put in and that it all worked out so well.”

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*The Brisbane Cup (Group 2) is The Candy Man’s next scheduled start. Baldwin acknowledges that is ‘another step up’ but The Candy Man has certainly earned his crack at more Group racing glory on Stradbroke Day (Saturday, June 8) and there can be no doubt that many of the huge crowd on track will be part of the growing band of supporters of The Candy Man who will be hoping to witness him record an eighth victory on the trot.