Based at Basford Grange Racing Stables in Basford, near Leek, Staffordshire, has held a full, dual-purpose licence since 2002, but enjoyed what the ‘Racing Post’ described as a ‘stellar’ season on the Flat in 2025. That year, she saddled 40 winners and amassed over £467,000 in prize money, miles ahead of her previous best, 14 winners and £139,000, in 2024. She also achieved her first Listed success on the Flat, albeit not on British soil, courtesy of Alzahir, ridden by Darragh Keenan, in the Prix de Bonneval at Chantilly on October 2, 2025.
Candlish saddled her first winner of any description, Black Bullet, ridden by Lee Vickers, in a handicap chase at Newcastle on November 15, 2002 and it is the National Hunt sphere that she has enjoyed the bulk of her major successes. She has a total of five Listed and Graded wins to her name, the pick of which was Cross Kennon, ridden by her partner and assistant trainer Alan O’Keefe, in the Grade 2 Rendelsham Hurdle at Haydock on February 19, 2011. Indeed, 2010/2011 was the first season in which Candlish broke into double figures under National Hunt Rules, a feat she has achieved in every season since, peaking with 45 winners and £359,000 in prize money in 2024/25.
On the Flat, Candlish saddled her first winner, Kenny The Truth, ridden by Ian Mongan, at Southwell on March 14, 2004. She reached double figures in a season for the first time in 2012 and did so again in 2013, but was back to single figures for the next five seasons before a resurgent last few years. At the time of writing, 24 winners and £292,000 in prize money is only good enough to place her eighty-fourth in the 2026 Flat trainers’ championship table but, coinincidentally, 24 winners and £202,000 is good enough for twelfth place in the 2026/27 National Hunt trainers’ championship table.