Candy Man Rocket ‘Very Sharp’ Ahead of GP Sprint
Kathleen O’Connell Closing in on Thoroughbred History

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Jun Park and Delia Nash’s Sibelius, who became a graded-stakes winner in the Mr. Prospector (G3) on New Year’s Eve at Gulfstream Park, is headed to Dubai to run in the $2 million Golden Shaheen (G1) March 25 at Meydan Racecourse.

“We have accepted an invitation to go to Dubai,” trainer Jerry O’Dwyer said. “He came out of his last race good and is doing really well.”

Sibelius has put together back-to-back wins for the first time in his 18-race career, both coming in stakes, starting with the seven-furlong Mr. Prospector, which was just his third graded-stakes attempt.

In that race, his fifth straight with jockey Junior Alvarado, Sibelius raced along the inside in second behind pacesetter Uncle Ernie before being swung out on the far turn to take the lead at the top of the stretch and go on to win by 2 ¼ lengths in 1:23.04. Uncle Ernie returns in Saturday’s $125,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint.

“He put it all together that day,” O’Dwyer said. “The Mr. Prospector worked out a bit different than the way he had been running. He was in behind the speed getting dirt in his face and had to rate a little bit and then tip out and go do it. He had to do everything like a proper racehorse does. He didn’t get everything his own way.”

Sibelius tuned up for Dubai with a 1 ¼-length victory in the Feb. 11 Pelican at Tampa Bay Downs, completing six furlongs in a stakes record 1:08.75, just .08 off the track record, with Alvarado aboard.

“I was very impressed with him, because he really had to battle off and fend off that other horse [Doctor Oscar] that put it to him the whole way,” O’Dwyer said. “He really had to dig in deep to put that horse away towards the wire.”

Sibelius has won four of his last six starts including his first stakes in the six-furlong Lite the Fuse last September at Pimlico Race Course, a front-running 7 ½-length romp over favored fellow Grade 3 winner Jaxon Traveler.

O’Dwyer said Sibelius will continue his preparations at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, before leaving for Dubai next month.

“He’ll have a couple breezes here at Palm Meadows and then he’ll ship out. He’ll probably have his last breeze on [March] 10th. He doesn’t need a lot of hard training,” he said. “He’ll have a couple of half-mile breezes. The plan is to breeze him on the 10th, check him over on the 11th and, if all is well, get on the plane on the 12th. He might have a little blowout, maybe an easy three-eighths in 38 [seconds] or something, just to let him stretch his legs over the track out there.”

O’Dwyer traveled to Dubai in 2020 with Grade 2 winner Shotski, who ran fourth in Gulfstream’s Fountain of Youth (G2), to take part in the UAE Derby (G2). The card was ultimately canceled following the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re excited. I love shipping horses, but I don’t like shipping them anywhere unless I think they’re live, and I do think he’s a very nice, genuine horse and hopefully he can get a nice piece of it out there,” O’Dwyer said.

“It was kind of our target all along if everything went according to plan,” he added. “Our long-term goal since the end of last year was to go to Dubai with him if he kept continuing to run well and progress.”

Candy Man Rocket ‘Very Sharp’ Ahead of GP Sprint

Frank Fletcher Racing Operations, Inc.’s Candy Man Rocket, a Grade 3 winner around two turns in 2021, chases his third straight victory and second off an 11-month layoff in Saturday’s $125,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint.

Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, 5-year-old Candy Man Rocket captured a six-furlong optional claiming allowance Jan. 21 by 2 ¼ lengths as the favorite to improve his record at Gulfstream Park to 3-0. It was his first race since winning a similar spot last February going seven furlongs.

“I thought it was a very sharp effort coming from almost a year off. It was a very good performance for him,” jockey Junior Alvarado said. “I didn’t really have to get to the bottom that day because he took me all he way to the wire. Hopefully if he moves a couple numbers up off of that race he should be very tough.”

Candy Man Rocket broke his maiden by 9 ¼ lengths in January 2021 at Gulfstream and won the 1 1/16-mile Sam F. Davis (G3) in his subsequent start and first under Alvarado, who has been his exclusive rider since. The connections went down the Triple Crown trail, finishing off the board in the Tampa Bay Derby (G2) and Wood Memorial (G2), before cutting back to sprints. He was second by a nose in the 2021 Gold Fever at Belmont Park before going to the sidelines.

“He feels very sharp, he feels very strong,” Alvarado said. “He grew. He feels like a very nice sprinter horse right now. We tried to stretch him out because he has that big body to him, but definitely Bill knew what to do after that and I think sprinting is his best weapon right now.”

Candy Man Rocket drew outermost Post 7 in the Gulfstream Park Sprint against a group that includes fellow graded-stakes winners Scaramouche, Super Ocho and Lightening Larry and 2021 Dr. Fager winner Cajun’s Magic.

“We got a good draw on the outside, so we’ll break good out of there and see what happens. He could take the lead if nobody goes or he can stalk right there and just wait for the right time,” Alvarado said. “Looking at the race, I just think he’s the best horse in there.”

Kathleen O’Connell Closing in on Thoroughbred History

Trainer Kathleen O’Connell is steadily closing in on Thoroughbred history. Heading into Friday’s program at Gulfstream Park, where she has two horses entered to race, O’Connell has saddled 2,381 winners, just four victories shy of all-time winningest female trainer Kim Hammond’s total of 2,385.

Hammond, who has been training since 1980, is still active in the Midwest but has saddled only 15 starters without success in 2023. O’Connell, who saddled her first horse at Hazel Park in her native Michigan in 1981, has notched 11 victories thus far this year between Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs.

Friday, O’Connell, a South Florida mainstay since the late 1980s, is scheduled to saddle American of Course for a start in a seven-furlong optional claiming starter allowance in Race 2. The Jacks or Better homebred, who is rated second in the morning-line at 5-2, was an eight-length winner in the same condition two starts back. In Race 4, a mile starter allowance on turf, O’Connell-trained Judge Judith, who was beaten last time out by less than a length following a troubled trip, is rated second at 7-2 in the morning line.

O’Connell, a multiple graded stakes-winning trainer, has four horses entered at Tampa Bay Downs Saturday and two entries for Sunday’s card at Gulfstream.

Hammond has no entries listed through Saturday.