Page 33 - SpeedhorseMarch2021

2020 FRESHMAN SIRE OF THE YEAR Jess Good Candy wins 2020 Freshman Sire Title
by Michael Compton
ITshould come as little surprise that Jess Good Candy, the leading first-crop sire of 2020, sired a Champion—Dulce Sin Tacha— in his
initial crop. After all, Jess Good Candy, who stands at Lazy E Ranch in Oklahoma as the property of PV Quarter Horse Farms, LLC, was a Champion himself. Winner of the prestigious All American Futurity-G1 in 2015, Jess Good Candy earned Champion Two Year Old and Champion 2-Year-Old Colt honors that year without ever tasting defeat. As a stallion, he is clearly passing on the traits of a winner.
Trained by Clinton Crawford, Jess Good Candy tipped his hand long before he ever crossed a finish line in competition. Bred by the late Carl Pevehouse who passed away in 2014 after breeding horses since the 1970s, Jess Good Candy always possessed the ‘it’ factor.
“When I picked this horse up in September
of his yearling year, I told Rozella (Carl’s widow) when they brought him out, ‘If you ever want to run a horse in the All American, this is the horse,’” Crawford said. I could not get over how big he was, how mature looking he was. He looked and acted like a 2 or 3 year old around those other yearlings. Once we started breaking him, we saw how he just floated across the ground. A big horse like him floating across the ground is not something you see often. He was light on his feet, and he was all class. He was just born that way.”
The initial impressions Crawford had about Jess Good Candy proved fortuitous. Jess Good Candy came out running as a precocious 2 year old, winning all four of his starts, including the $3 million All American Futurity-G1 at Ruidoso Downs. His victory in the All American made history as he became the first undefeated winner of the prestigious Grade 1 event.
The following season at three, Jess Good Candy added another Grade 1 win to his slate, taking the Ruidoso Derby-G1 at Ruidoso Downs, defeating Volcom Bay and Apollitical Ok over 400 yards. He also annexed the Mr Master Bug Handicap at Remington Park and finished the year with an unblemished record of four
wins in as many starts—polishing off a stellar racing career with a perfect 8-for-8 record. The $495,463 he added to his coffers at three swelled his lifetime bankroll to $2,014,703.
Jess Good Candy © Bee Silva
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