With a record 25 seven-figure yearlings off to be broken, including three of the top five transactions at the sale concluded at Keeneland the previous day, Gun Runner evidently circulated a memo to his team on Sunday. Champion juvenile filly Super Corredora dusted herself down, after a six-month layoff, to win the GII Zenyatta Stakes; from the next crop, the 'TDN Rising Star presented by Hagyard' maiden success of Foxiest, after bungling her debut, showed why Gun Runner had been so eligible for a mare as valuable as Covfefe (Into Mischief); and Silent Tactic (Tacitus), having bombed in his previous start, won the GIII Oklahoma Derby to renew his role as flagship for Gun Runner as an emerging broodmare sire.But the only Grade I winner of the weekend–a first at that level for Vekoma, Forged Steel in the Goodwood Stakes–reminded us that Gun Runner is not alone in expanding the legacy of Candy Ride (Arg).Candy Ride presumably won't have much more to offer, having celebrated his 27th birthday on Sunday (foaled, obviously, in the Southern Hemisphere spring). But his sons Gun Runner, Vekoma and Twirling Candy are between them covering over 600 mares a year–and no ordinary mares, either, at $250,000, $100,000 and $60,000, respectively. It's a pretty astonishing footprint for a stallion who started out, way back in 2005, at just $10,000.How bittersweet for John Sikura that both Candy Ride and the horse he beat in the GI Pacific Classic, Medaglia d'Oro, laid the groundwork for a great career on his roster–with four Grade I winners apiece from their debut crops–before, for different reasons, moving elsewhere.Sikura had been on a fishing trip in Argentina when captivated by Candy Ride's famous 1:31 mile. To switch hemisphere and surface, and stretch out for another ridiculous time (1:59.11) at Del Mar, was the work of a global talent. Unfortunately, Candy Ride's Californian career proved only brief, and he disappeared for 18 months before resurfacing at stud. Few South American stallions having remotely approached the impact of Forli (Arg), he would need to earn his commercial stripes from a low base.Dainty feet, in particular, meant that Candy Ride was never going to be a “one-size-fits-all” stallion. Even in his prime, he managed a single season as a six-figure cover, immediately returned to $75,000; and his ratio of 6% stakes winners-to-named foals, while better than most, can be matched by some inexpensive rivals. But these latter obviously don't have 20 Grade I scorers, while only Into Mischief, Tapit and Curlin among active stallions exceed his bank of $170 million.Most importantly, he has long guaranteed the succession. Most stallions would forfeit their best hope of an heir if a champion juvenile had been castrated and/or died young. But Candy Ride shrugged off poor Shared Belief to open serial routes to Fappiano away from the Unbridled interstate.Gun Runner would hardly be the first breed-shaping stallion to surpass his own sire, especially as his dam could funnel potent blood of her own. And that's also true of Vekoma, out of a Grade I winner from the family of Mr. Greeley and Street Sense. Along with Twirling Candy, however, they require us to acknowledge the sheer prowess of their sire.Vekoma represents a familiar commercial model, with big numbers behind him, but has never been one of those spurious cases who headline “yet another stakes winner” to redress a cavalry of underachievers. In an intake containing several interesting prospects, his indices have consistently maintained his primacy: 185 winners from 283 starters (65.3%) include 27 (9.5%) at black-type and a dozen (4.2%) at graded level. Tiz the Law and the enigmatic McKinzie complete the big three, by fees, with others meanwhile outpunching their fees and books. Hopefully they will all cycle through, but in a ruthless environment, Vekoma has certainly seized his window of opportunity.Forged Steel wasn't an especially obvious candidate to end his wait for that Grade I, albeit he plainly (and very sensibly) finds Santa Anita congenial. He's out of a Tale of the Cat mare who changed hands twice while carrying him in utero (for $8,000 and $30,000):. Her five wins were mostly under a tag, while her numerous winning siblings included just one of note, Star Contender (Henny Hughes) having been a useful juvenile in Canada.On the face of it, then, quite a macho upgrade by Vekoma. But Forged Steel's granddam was by Unbridled's Song out of Hangin on a Star (Vice Regent), who beat the colts in the 1987 Breeders' Stakes and entwines plenty of Sam-Son black type. Freshest is that stamped by millionaire Time to Dazzle (Not This Time), who's bred on quite similar lines. Her dam is by Unbridled's Song out of a daughter of Hangin on a Star.Regardless, in stoking those embers Vekoma has plainly confirmed the virility imparted by his sire. Haras Abolengo bred Candy Ride because they had daughters of Candy Stripes conveniently available for a newer American arrival, Ride the Rails. But who knows, maybe the horse has returned a “hybrid vigor” to the Bluegrass from a maternal family saturated with indigenous Argentinian blood. Whatever the source, it has been a hell of a Ride.Loss and LegacyAs we know, breeding the best to the best allows us no more than to hope for the best. But the abovementioned Foxiest is certainly keeping that hope alive–and likewise, come to that, Stellar Wind's son by Into Mischief, Plutarch, who looked ready to make up for lost time at Churchill last weekend.For the LNJ Foxwoods program that produced Foxiest, her first success will remain indelibly associated with the loss, the same day, of Larry Roth. It was Roth's daughter Jaime who ignited a family passion for the Turf, but he embraced it in such a way that Foxiest could now become the most gratifying and lasting of legacies.She absolutely represents the commitment to quality underpinning the project. Mind you, it was the seasoned judgement of a rather more venerable program that produced Covfefe. For Into Mischief was still standing at just $35,000 when Alexander-Groves Thoroughbreds sent him a true gem in Antics (Unbridled).Foxiest | Coady MediaAs a daughter of Aurora (Danzig), Antics was half-sister to that most wholesome of influences, Arch, and to GI Spinster Stakes winner Acoma (Empire Maker). And Aurora, of course, was herself out of the elite runner/producer Althea (Alydar): half-sister to the mother of Green Desert, to condense ludicrously the countless reasons why their own dam Courtly Dee (Never Bend) is one of the great matriarchs.All that said, Antics was struggling to establish her own branch of the dynasty–unraced, and with a fitful production record–by the time she was sent to Into Mischief as a 17-year-old. But her owners evidently had an astute sense that Harlan's Holiday would suit Antics, using him twice in three years. The first of those dates produced Albiano, who was emerging as a classy miler in Japan (dual Group winner/Group 1 runner-up) the same spring that Antics, Harlan's Holiday having died in the meantime, was sent to his son Into Mischief.Even so Covfefe lurked deep (hip 1527) in the 2017 September sale, and was duly well found by Solis/Litt at $250,000. By that stage, Into Mischief had worked his way up to $75,000, but Covfefe's track career would itself accelerate his rise.Already LNJ have bred a stakes-winning/Grade II-placed broodmare prospect from Covfefe in Ellen Jay (Constitution). But these saplings take time to grow, and leaving their shade to future generations is one of the great bequests within anyone's gift.Bishops Could Bless UsBy modern standards, but really only by modern standards, we can call them “old school”: the 6-year-old Bishops Bay (Uncle Mo) taking his score to 11-for-18 in the GIII Ack Ack Stakes, and his earnings to $2,875,080; and Cabo Spirit (Pioneerof The Nile), a year his senior, the same day advancing his resume to 45-8-6-10, and his bank to $1,568,856, in the GII City of Hope Mile.In a sane world, these are the kind of horses we should breed from. Not an option, in the case of the gelded Cabo Spirit, which is a shame given that he's out of Tizdubai's daughter by Shamardal. But Bishops Bay retains the necessary equipment and is half-brother to GII Louisiana Derby winner Catching Freedom (Constitution). (Note, incidentally, that it was his late damsire who gave us Cabo Spirit: some hardy stuff flowing down the Nile…)Bishops Bay (center) | Coady MediaI can think of only one or two Kentucky farms with adequate imagination to welcome a horse to the covering shed at seven. But you know who else won his fourth graded stakes in the Ack Ack, admittedly as a youngster of only five, before going on to a two-decade stud career? Animal name of Distorted Humor.The post Breeding Digest: Steel an Alloy of Candy Gold appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.