Eye Live for Candy earns sweet Derby victory at Ajax Downs
Published June 20, 2022 at 10:12 am
Quarter Horse racing fans were treated to a thrilling victory in the Princess Derby on a picture-perfect Father’s Day at Ajax Downs, with crowd favourite Eye Live for Candy racing to a 1 ¾ length victory.
Sent off at 3 to 5 odds ($3.40 to win) by the shrewd betting crowd, Eye Live for Candy and jockey Ismael Mosquiera won easily in the 350-yard, $53,010 Princess Derby, a major race for 3-year-old fillies, in a quick time of 18.021 (into a 17 mph headwind) for an 89 speed index.
Longshot Jtc Lil Moonbar, a 12 to 1 chance for owner and trainer Don Reid, won the mad scramble for second place by a neck over John Wilson’s Ontario-bred filly Oh My Gawd.
Owned by Burlington, Ontario’s Milena Kwiecien and trained by Jason Pascoe of Pontypool. Eye Live for Candy had won one of the two Trials for the Derby on June 1 despite a bad start from the gate but the brown filly was straight and strong in the final.
“She gets very impatient sometimes,” said Mosquiera, Ajax Downs’ leading rider. “I just had to make her very relaxed and we had drawn a very nice post position (9). She wasn’t in the gate very long and when we got out of the gate and she started opening up, I said ‘wow’.”
“I thought she was going to be a better 3-year-old this year, she was a little immature as a 2-year-old,” said Pascoe, currently the leading trainer at Ajax Downs.
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Eye Live for Candy was winning for the third time in her 13th career start and collected $21,205 for the Derby win, bringing her career total earnings to over $65,000. The filly was purchased privately by Kwiecien in 2021 from breeder Klay Hinck of Wyoming.
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