Justenuff Candy

August 30, 2009

Potential web site updates looked ambitious last week, with Justenuffhumor running in Saratoga’s Bernard Baruch S. (G-2) on Friday and Capt. Candyman Can entered in the G-1 King’s Bishop for Saturday.
 
Both horses have strong ties to Lantern Hill, but only a pie-eyed optimist would think we’d be writing a double victory story Sunday morning.
 
So what does Lantern Hill have to do with Justenuffhumor? We were lucky when Frank Calabrese retired his stakes winning mare Justenuffheart to Lantern Hill Farm in the fall of 2000, because not only did we have the honor of raising her two Rahy offspring, champion filly Dreaming of Anna and G2 winner Lewis Michael; we also got to live with this legendary daughter of Broad Brush on a daily basis.
 
Justenuffheart stands over 16.1 hands, is leggy for her sire’s stock; and both her Rahy offspring stood over a lot of ground. So when Mr. Calabrese sought advice on the mare’s 2004 mating, Suzi thought Distorted Humor’s smaller stature might be a good fit. At the time his fee was a relatively modest $50,000, but with the likes of 2003 Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide on the track, he looked to have potential as a mate for the unproven Justenuffheart.
 
Later that year Mr. Calabrese decided to sell all of his mares and Justenuffheart was entered in Lantern Hill Farm’s consignment to the 2005 Keeneland January Sale. Greg Goodman’s Mt. Brilliant Farm purchased the mare on the advice of Mt. Brilliant farm manager Jody Alexander, who loved “Justy” the minute he saw her, and was a frequent visitor to the farm and sales barn those days.
 
Darley Stable purchased Justenuffhumor at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale from Mt. Brilliant in 2006, and trainer Kieran McLaughlin found the colt’s best stride this year, with six consecutive wins on the turf and earnings of $317,400.
 
"He's one of those special horses who when you put them in the starting gate, you know they'll find a way to get to the wire first," McLaughlin said after the Bernard Baruch win Friday afternoon.
 
Saturday’s running of the seven furlong King’s Bishop on a sloppy track may have lacked the poetry of Justenuffhumor’s commanding turf win Friday, but no one could be prouder of their horse’s determination to prevail than we are of Capt. Candyman Can.
 
As The Captain gained on Vineyard Haven in the stretch, the gray drifted into his path and bumped him twice inside the sixteenth pole, knocking him off stride. In spite of being cut off Capt. Candyman Can conceded only a neck victory to Vineyard Haven, whose number was quickly taken down after jockey Javier Castellano’s claim of foul.
 
“He came out and bumped me twice,” said Castellano. “My horse lost momentum at that point. I think we would definitely have won without the bumping.”
 
Watching the race here in Midway, we agreed. Then we toasted The Captain, Joe Rauch and Dave Zell, Ian Wilkes, and Stormy Way. What a great couple of days!