When Candy Ride began his stud career, it took very little time to establish that he seemed well suited by Storm Cat line mares. From his first crop came grade 1 winners Evita Argentina (dam by Forest Wildcat) and Capt. Candyman Can (dam by Storm Creek), and in his second came another scorer at the highest level, Sidney's Candy.
Over the years, the cross has continued to be much utilized, and it's stood the tests of time and numbers well. So far, there have been 231 starters for Candy Ride out of mares by Storm Cat and sons, and 25 stakes winners for a very strong 10.8% stakes winners to starters.
What's more, the cross is responsible for Candy Ride's two best runners: Horse of the Year Gun Runner (dam by Giant's Causeway) and champion 2-year-old Shared Belief (dam by Storm Cat himself).
The cross has also been effective for sons of Candy Ride, with 26 stakes winners out of mares by sons or grandsons of Storm Cat, including Preakness Stakes (G1) scorer Rombauer and Runhappy Del Mar Futurity (G1) victor Pinehurst , both by Twirling Candy, and champion 2-year-old filly Echo Zulu and Hopeful Stakes (G1) captor Gunite , both from the first crop of Gun Runner.
It now appears the roles are being successfully reversed, and there are already at least 13 stakes winners by Storm Cat line stallions out of Candy Ride mares (from a total of 33, or nearly 40%). This includes Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) winner Epicenter and Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) scorer Simplification , the top colts so far for Not This Time (by Gun Runner's broodmare sire, Giant's Causeway) and a trio of stakes winners, including graded scorer Into Chocolate, by Into Mischief .
The lucky 13th stakes winner on the cross takes the nick one generation back, as Chocolate Gelato, who splashed home first in the Oct. 2 Frizette Stakes (G1), is by Practical Joke , who is a son of Into Mischief, and so a great-great-grandson of Storm Cat.
The Frizette was the third start for Repole Stable's Chocolate Gelato, who finished third as the odds-on favorite for a maiden special weight over 5 1/2 furlongs in July at Saratoga Race Course, but who rebounded to score an impressive 8 1/2-length victory over six furlongs at the same venue the following month.
Chocolate Gelato is from the second Northern Hemisphere crop of Practical Joke. Bred on the extremely successful Into Mischief/Distorted Humor cross, Practical Joke won his first three races at 2, including the 2016 Hopeful Stakes (G1) and Champagne Stakes (G1), and ended the year with a third to Classic Empire and Not This Time in the Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1).
Practical Joke began his 3-year-old career on the Triple Crown trail, earning his way into the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) with seconds in the Xpressbet Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) and Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1). He finished a solid fifth to Always Dreaming under the Twin Spires, then rebounded to take the Dwyer Stakes (G3) at a mile. Another attempt to stretch his speed resulted in a third in the Betfair.com Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1), before he reverted to sprints to gain his third victory at the highest level in the H. Allen Jerkens Stakes (G1). Practical Joke wound up his career with a fourth in the Las Vegas Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) and a third in the Cigar Mile Presented by NYRA Bets (G1), before retiring to Ashford Stud in Kentucky.
Practical Joke's first crop are currently 3-year-olds, and six of them have won black-type races, including Wit, successful in the Bay Shore Stakes (G3) and Sanford Stakes (G3), and the Forward Gal Stakes (G3) winner Girl With A Dream. From his second crop, in addition to Chocolate Gelato, he's also responsible for the Exacta Systems Rosies' Stakes winner Determined Jester. He's also been something of a standout with his first shuttle crop in Chile, where he has been represented by four stakes winners, three of them grade 1, with his daughters recently taking the three top spots in the Clasico Mil Guineas (G1).
Chocolate Gelato is the first winner for her dam, Special Treat, who won once as a 4-year-old. The second dam, Snooze, a daughter of Forestry, was placed, and is dam of two other winners. If the first two dams were rather light, third dam Daydreaming more than compensates. She won the 2004 Top Flight Handicap (G3) and Indiana Breeders' Cup Oaks (G3), the 2005 Next Move Handicap (G3), and earned places in four other graded stakes, including when second in the Gazelle Handicap (G1) and third in the Spinaway Stakes (G1). Daydreaming also produced a high-class performer in Imagining, who took three graded stakes, including the Man o' War Stakes (G1T) in 2015.
By A.P. Indy out of the 1992 Affectionately Handicap (G3) winner Get Lucky, Daydreaming is a sister to Girolamo, whose most notable success came in the 2010 Vosburgh Stakes (G1); to graded winner and grade 1-placed Accelerator; to Supercharger, dam of the 2010 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) winner and sire Super Saver, and to graded stakes winners Cyrus Alexander and Brethren. She is also granddam of Callback, successful in the 2015 La Virgenes Stakes (G1); and to She's a Winner, the dam of four black-type scorers, headed by Bluegrass Cat, whose credits include a win in the 2006 Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1), and seconds in the Kentucky Derby (G1), Belmont Stakes (G1), and Travers Stakes (G1).
Get Lucky is a sister to champion 2-year-old and 1990 Travers Stakes (G1) winner Rhythm, both by Mr. Prospector out of Northern Dancer's grade 1-winning daughter Dance Number, and the next dam is champion 2-year-old filly Numbered Account, who, like Chocolate Gelato, won the Frizette (hers in 1971).
Numbered Account was inbred 4x5 to her own fifth dam, La Troienne, that duplication coming through close sisters Busanda and Striking—both by War Admiral out of daughters of La Troienne—who appear 2x3 in the pedigree. Daydream's pedigree has another three crosses of the War Admiral/La Troienne cross via A.P. Indy.
We can note that although the Storm Cat strain via Practical Joke is back in the fifth generation of Chocolate Gelato's pedigree, given the Candy Ride/Storm Cat affinity, it's probably significant that Forestry, the sire of the second dam, is also by Storm Cat. We'll also observe that Practical Joke looks a particularly interesting cross for Candy Ride, as his broodmare sire, Distorted Humor, is by Forty Niner, a Mr. Prospector/Tom Rolfe cross, like Candy Ride's grandsire, Cryptoclearance. Forty Niner and Cryptoclearance already appear in nearly 30 stakes winners. Sixteen of these involve Candy Ride, five of them grade 1, including Epicenter and multiple grade 1 winner Cyberknife .
