BROWNIE'S BLOG: A HORSE WITH A FIGHTING SPIRIT THAT RESONATES SO WELL WITH THE RACING PUBLIC

By Damian Browne | Friday, September 4, 2020

On Saturday at Eagle Farm we saw, once again, how a horse with a bit of character and a fighting spirit can charm the racing public and get right into their hearts.

To some degree, The Candy Man has always been winning against the odds, from all he has had to overcome serious setbacks off the track, to his growing number of successes in races. Being a flashy grey as well … people warm to that … even the name … and, of course all that he went through with those operations … his never-say-die attitude in his winning performances … it’s an accumulation of all of those things and more that has captured the public’s imagination.

Perhaps, above all, it is the fighting qualities that resonate with the public. It’s the way they go about things when they look gone. It’s how they get things done … and that was very much in evidence with The Candy Man again on Saturday.

I only rode The Candy Man once … but that was in a memorable win, even if it was only in a Class 1. That was back in January 2019. Before that win, people thought he went ok, but he didn’t really have a following. It seems to have been since that day that things changed.

Horses don’t normally miss the start … I can’t remember exactly … by ten, twelve lengths, or whatever it was, and still win. That win went up onto social media and The Candy Man’s following took off from there as did his career on the track. That win was part of a seven-race unbeaten winning sequence which carried him all the way to a Group 3 success in the Premier’s Cup.

His story is just so good for racing.

Sadly, for me I didn’t go as well. The Candy Man was to be my last winner. A week after that winning ride health issues forced me out of the saddle and they were serious enough to force me into retirement a couple of months later.
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While The Candy Man is now heading for a new challenge down south, where he will join the Peter and Paul Snowden stable, the connections of the boom filly Kisukano have decided to keep the three-year-old in Queensland for now.

She is obviously a little lady with a big attitude and she couldn’t have been more impressive in what she has been doing, even if she was probably a weighted certainty … if there is such a thing … last Saturday with 53kg.

If it was a handicap, she probably would have got 63kg so you would have expected that win but she still had to do it … and win she did!

I thought her win the start before that at Eagle Farm, where she was hard to into get into the barriers, she was a touch slow out and did some work and still ran away from them with a fair amount of weight too, showed that she has obviously got a good amount of ability.

She is very good.

Again, she is in a similar position to Rothfire, in that it would be nice to see them up against some of the better ones in the country just to get a better line on where our three-year-olds are.

It’s a bit hard to line them up until they actually meet but, having said that, all kudos to both Kisukano and Rothfire for the hot pace they have been setting in their careers to date.
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After his strong gallop in-between races at Eagle farm last Saturday there have been plenty of views expressed about Rothfire’s possible participation in The Everest … where he currently still has to find a slot holder to pick up his option.

Not just with Rothfire … but the waiting game is the gamble that most of the slot holders take when deciding when to throw their hat into the ring.

They might be favouring a particular horse and there might be no hats there … and then it comes out and wins by five in a quality race and suddenly there might be five slot holder hats in the ring all looking to secure that particular horse for their slot.

It is obviously a calculated gamble that all slot holders face. Some do make the early move but most walk a tightrope.

There is still much to play out in this regard but the countdown is now well and truly on (the $14 million race takes place on October 17) so you can expect quite a bit of activity in the coming weeks.
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While Kusikano is not heading south (all things being equal she will certainly be doing so next year) the upcoming Queensland representation for the feature races down south is looking pretty good.

Whatever the respective outcomes, Rothfire, The Candy Man, Tyzone, Vanna Girl and, of course, Alligator Blood will all go into their races with solid reputations and reasonable expectations.

I don’t think there has been a team like this representing Queensland since Buffering, Spirit Of Boom, Temple of Boom and Woorim and the like, and they won their fair share of races over the carnival.

Whether this current group can go down and replicate some of those results remains to be seen but their presence certainly impacts positively on Queensland racing.

They will certainly not be short of Queensland support and I look forward to what is always an interesting time on the national racing calendar.

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