Candle lights up in River Plate Trophy
Jess de Lautour • July 20th, 2025 6:40 PM
Richard Didham maintained the perfect strike rate with a pair of ex-Hastings gallopers at Oamaru on Sunday, headlined by Candle’s success in the Glenmoa Farms Ltd River Plate Trophy (1200m).
Candle, alongside her stablemate Speed Dial, was formerly in the care of Hawke’s Bay conditioners Guy Lowry and Leah Zydenbos, and the mare joined Didham’s Aylesbury stable recently after collecting three wins in the north.
The daughter of Super Easy covered extra ground to finish a respectable eighth in her debut for Didham earlier this month, and was underrated in Sunday’s market at $22, with The Hangover closing favourite at $4.70.
Drawing the extreme outside barrier, jockey Leah Hemi opted to settle back in the last pair aboard Candle, while Master Marko drove through to take the lead. Turning for home, the field fanned wide across the track, but Hemi stuck to the inside and burst into contention, outsprinting Lise Paree and a game The Hangover late to score by three-quarters of a length.
Didham was delighted with the result, having combined with Hemi earlier on the card to take out the Hart Memorial (1400m) with Speed Dial.
“It’s been a great day,” he said.
“It was really nice of Guy Lowry to lease her (Candle) down to me and I’ve only had her for one start. Things didn’t go her way at Ashburton, and today, it was a gun ride by Leah. She stayed on the fence, never went around a horse and was too good.
“She’s run against a lot of nice horses, she ran second to Provence at Auckland which is great form.
“I’m just thankful to everyone that had got us here today.”
Out a No Excuse Needed mare Flare, Candle has won four of her 21 starts and over $110,000 in stakes. – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
