It seems Jenny Craig just couldn't turn down Chocolate Candy.
The Del Mar resident and co-founder of the weight-loss company that bears her name had long identified Saturday as a day when she would be in Malibu to watch her granddaughter graduate from Pepperdine University, the North County Times reported. But Craig won't be in Malibu this weekend.
Chocolate Candy has led her to Louisville, Ky., for the grandest event in thoroughbred horse racing ---- the Kentucky Derby.
Chocolate Candy is a 3-year-old colt bred by Craig's late husband, Sid, and he's running in the race.
"Believe me, it was a heartbreaking decision to make," Craig said Wednesday morning, a day before she boarded a plane for Kentucky, "but (my granddaughter) insisted that I go. After thinking about it, this is what Sid would have wanted me to do. How embarrassing would it be to win the Derby and not have the owner there? I think in the history of the race that has never happened."
Sid Craig loved horse racing ---- he died last summer during the racing season at the Del Mar racetrack, his favorite time of year ---- and the one thing he wanted to do most in the game was win the first leg of the sport's Triple Crown races.
"It was his dream," Craig said.
