Page 34 - SpeedhorseMarch2021

“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.”
“He is the best horse I ever had,” Crawford said. “He is the kind of horse most trainers don’t ever get in their lifetime. For me to get him, it was such a special feeling. He will always be special to me no matter how many other good horses I come across. He was the first one and probably the only one I will have like that. He was unbeatable. You just don’t see horses like him come around very often. It didn’t matter if he broke dead last or if he got run over, he always found a way to win. He is very special.”
Crawford has many fond memories of Jess Good Candy, including the days leading up to his memorable victory in the All American.
“When he won the All American, I didn’t know whether to cry or jump for joy,” Crawford said. “Leading up to the race I knew he had a good chance to win it even against the stout competition. After his trial, I thought if we can just get him to break with them then he can beat them. That is just what he did.
“I didn’t say a lot about him leading up the race,” Crawford added. “I kept quiet. I slept at the barn with him every night before the race between the trials and the final. He had someone with him 24-7 during that time. He was kind of a longshot before the race, but he was my shot. He is a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”
FAMILY TIES
Jess Good Candy is by Good Reason SA,
the multiple Grade 1-winning Champion Aged Horse and Champion Aged Stallion. Winner
of the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity-G1, Golden State Derby-G1 and the Champion of Champions-G1, among others, Good Reason SA is by the Thoroughbred stallion Favorite Trick, the
© Orona Photography
1997 Horse of the Year and the first two year old to earn Horse of the Year honors since Secretariat in 1972. Favorite Trick, like Jess Good Candy, enjoyed an undefeated season at 2, going 8-for-8 in his championship year with a pair of Grade 1 victories.
Jess Good Candy hails from a female
family replete with black type. He is out of the winning Mr Jess Perry mare Jess Send Candy who is also represented by graded stakes winner This Candys Awesome, multiple stakes winner Send Me This Wagon, and stakes winner
and Grade 1-placed Honeymoon Candy. His second dam, Send Me the Candy, winner
of the Remington Park Futurity-G1, is the
dam of such outstanding runners as Grade 1 winner Send Me A Candy Tree, and multiple graded stakes winner and Grade 1-placed This Candys Special and is a half-sister to such runners as graded stakes winner Send the Gals
Dulce Sin Tacha emerged as the star from Jess Good Candy’s initial crop, being crowned 2020 AQHA Racing Champion Two-Year-Old Colt.
Candy, stakes winner Call Me Candy Man and stakes-placed Love This Candy.
Unbeaten in his racing career and a descendant of a productive and running family, Jess Good Candy retired to stud with high expectations. He exceeded them and more with his highly anticipated first crop distinguishing themselves on the racetrack.
All told, Jess Good Candy’s initial crop amassed earnings of $1,273,771 in 2020. Numbered among his 20 first-crop winners were two stakes winners—Dulce Sin Tacha and Teller With Candy—and four stakes-placed performers in Misscandymountain, Sweet Candy Jewel, Jess Good Enough, and Ah Candyland.
“With an undefeated All American winner the bar is very, very high,” noted Lazy E Ranch’s Butch Wise. “When you get started with a young stallion like that you
© Gay Harris
A Revenant Apollitical Spirit Big Lew
32 SPEEDHORSE March 2021