Editors Note: We’re wrapping up the 23rd year of The Special with some moments from the meet. You can find the complete editions from 2023 here.
Upset Jawn: Philly Shipper Yo Yo Candy delivers at 46-1 in juvenile Grade 3. By Tom Law. July 19 edition.
Danny Velazquez stood in front of the large fan blowing in the winner’s circle, allowing the air to cool his sweat-soaked black shirt if only for just a few seconds and wondered aloud how he got there.
“Oooh, that feels good,” Velazquez said, stopping for about three seconds of fan-blast. “How did that happen?”
Those that remained of Saturday’s paid crowd of 31,458 wondered the same thing, after Yo Yo Candy sprang the upset of the young meet in the co-featured Grade 3 Sanford Stakes for 2-year-olds. The California-bred son of Danzing Candy delivered for Velazquez, owners Happy Tenth Stable and his backers to the tune of 46-1, and his $94 win payout for a $2 bet is far and away the highest through the first four days of racing.
“I jumped from the balcony over here. I don’t even know how I got here,” Velazquez said. “This is a dream come true. As a kid you wish to win races here and here I am.”
A former jockey who won 212 races before hanging it up and starting his training career in 2009, Velazquez got his first cup of coffee in the big leagues when he saddled Brooklyn Strong in the 2021 Kentucky Derby after getting in the race at the 11th hour. The Sanford is just his second graded stakes victory – after Brooklyn Strong’s win in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct in 2020 – and first Saratoga score.
Jockey Angel Castillo, who like Velazquez came in from Parx Racing just outside Philadelphia for the Sanford, also celebrated his first graded stakes win and first Saratoga victory in just his second ride in upstate New York. He finished second aboard Salamera in the Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes in 2012.
“I wasn’t aware if it was my first, the second, I don’t know,” Castillo said through an interpreter. “I guess it is but I wasn’t aware. I would like it if they would give me more opportunities. Of course, I would be here and be committed.”
Yo Yo Candy came into the Sanford an outsider and off a distant third behind odds-on favorite Gold Sweep in the Tremont Stakes June 11 at Belmont Park. He’d won a 4 1/2-furlong maiden at Parx prior to that run.
Bettors discounted Yo Yo Candy in the Tremont, sending him off at 26-1. He finished 10 1/4 lengths behind Gold Sweep that day. Velazquez noticed him break “a little sluggish” in the Tremont and opted to add blinkers to the colt purchased for $35,000 at this year’s OBS March sale of selected 2-year-olds in training.
“I added the blinkers and took him back to the gate twice after the race,” Velazquez said. “I told Angel, ‘If he’s as good as we think he is, we’re going to be competitive.’ No respect on the board, but we knew that we did everything right coming into this race. I was very, very satisfied watching him out there warm up, and said, ‘OK, he’s ready to run.’ ”
Yo Yo Candy broke well, bumped a bit with Ramming Speed to his outside and settled into third behind Dickens and Market Street up the backstretch and to the opening quarter in :22.15.
Odds-on favorite Gold Sweep didn’t fare near as well after he stumbled at the start, bumped with Market Street to his outside and dropped back to last early. The Steve Asmussen-trained son of Speightstown got up to second last heading to the far turn while racing toward the outside.
“Obviously, it didn’t go as expected, but it’s pretty self-explanatory,” Asmussen said. “We didn’t plan on him losing, but we didn’t plan on him getting left either.”
Castillo kept Yo Yo Candy behind the leaders around the far turn, as Market Street put pressure on Dickens and eventually took command approaching the quarter-pole and the half-mile split in :45.83. Market Street and Dickens continued to battle in the lane as Castillo tipped Yo Yo Candy off the fence and surged past.
“It was good, all good,” Castillo said. “Easily done by the horse, he knew what to do. In the first few meters he got into position. He had to go a little bit wide (on the turn), but I kept him steady waiting for the stretch, and when I asked him to run, he kept coming. He got the trip and gave it his all.”
Yo Yo Candy opened up inside the sixteenth pole as Dickens tried to hang on down inside while Woodbine shipper Triple Trea and Gold Sweep battled for a piece. Gold Sweep put away those two rivals but was no match for the winner, who won in 1:11.83 on the fast track.
“The horses don’t know if they are favorites or not,” Castillo said. “We traveled here to throw ourselves in and see if we could win. And even if we didn’t win, at least we would give it our best try.”
Velazquez credited the blinkers adjustment, new figure eight and tongue tie and the continued use of a breast plate to prevent the saddle from slipping on the thin colt, who is out of the two-time Saratoga-winning and multiple graded stakes-placed Two Punch mare Yolanda B. Too.
“Once I get him more calm and collected he’s going to be dangerous,” Velazquez said. “He’s still hopping around and being a baby . . . The saddle slips, that’s another thing. He’s a little thin on the ribs, so if you leave it the saddle slips. We’re not having that, so I figured I’d put it on. Can’t have that happen, especially not here at Saratoga. I used it the first time he ran and ever since. It’s a lucky strap now.”
Yo Yo Candy was one of two Cal-bred sons of Danzing Candy that Velazquez picked out and purchased at the OBS March sale, the other a colt out of the Bertrando mare Visual Treat for $20,000. He bought Yo Yo Candy for Happy Tenth Stable, owned by Tom Lamont, who wasn’t on hand for their first graded stakes victory. Happy Tenth also bought a colt by Mitole for $50,000 at the OBS March sale.
“Here’s how ironic the world is, I never go to that March sale. Never. Ever,” Velazquez said. “I said, ‘I’ve got to try my luck and try the March sale.’ I picked him out and some others. I liked his conformation, like the way he looked. He cost $35,000, a Cali-bred. I figured if it doesn’t work out, I can take him to California and run him there. The minute he started training I was like, ‘wow.’ Now I’m pumped.”
Velazquez said he’d target the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes on Closing Day for Yo Yo Candy.
“Honestly, I just want to go home and I’ll dry off and we’ll go from there,” he said.
Additional reporting by Joe Clancy. Translation by Annise Montplaisir.
