Word: bende
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This year there are two Misters Big-and for good reason. Harry Guggenheim's Never Bend and Rex Ellsworth's Candy Spots already rank head-and-hindquarters above the rest of U.S. three-year-olds. When they meet for a showdown on May 4 at Churchill Downs, the race will be one of the year's great sports attractions...
East v. West. As a two-year-old, Never Bend won seven of ten races and an all-time record $402,969; two weeks ago he clearly stamped himself the best in the East by coasting to a five-length victory in Florida's $136,600 Flamingo Stakes. The West's champion, Candy Spots, has an even cleaner record: he has won all his five races, and on the same day that Never Bend won the Flamingo, he skirted a four-horse pile-up to win California's $143,300 Santa Anita Derby by 1½ lengths...
Each horse is impeccably sired: Never Bend by the Irish stallion Nasrullah (other offspring: Nashua, Bold Ruler, Jaipur), Candy Spots by the Argentine stakes winner Nigromante. As a matter of fact, the two horses seem so closely matched that even the oddsmakers are having trouble. Last week in Tijuana, Mexico bookies quoted Never Bend at 2 to 1 to win the Kentucky Derby, Candy Spots...
...there the similarity ends. A medium-sized colt with a shining dark bay coat, Never Bend likes to grab an early lead and fight off challengers. Candy Spots is a strapping chestnut with curious black and white spots on his rump, who prefers to dwell in the pack, then turn on a withering burst of speed in the stretch. And the horses could hardly have more contrasting jockeys. Never Bend's regular rider is fiery Panamanian Manuel Ycaza, 25, whose terrible-tempered tactics earn him almost as much time on suspension as in the saddle. Candy Spots...
...racing. His 25-1 longshot, Dark Star, won the 1953 Derby -handing Native Dancer the only defeat of his career. Guggenheim does not believe in overworking a race horse. "My only concern with racing today is to try to keep a horse sound," he says. But Never Bend has been so busy that he stands a good chance of becoming U.S. racing's first three-year-old millionaire...