Tales from the Crib: Slow Down Andy

Jan 31, 2022 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

After winning the Kentucky Derby (G1) twice with colts
purchased at auction, Reddam Racing is back on the trail with a California homebred
– Slow Down Andy. By Reddam’s 2016 Derby champ Nyquist, Slow Down Andy is also
out of a mare whose background is all J. Paul Reddam.

His dam, Edwina E, is a daughter of Reddam’s Grade 1 star Square Eddie and Electric Daze, who joined the Reddam fold in utero. Electric Daze’s dam, Electric Fable, was acquired while carraying her. Bringing $80,000 at the 2004 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, Electric Fable was shipped to California, where she foaled Electric Daze. 

That makes Slow Down Andy a third-generation Reddam homebred. Trainer Doug O’Neill is likewise a recurring presence in his family history, having prepared Nyquist, Square Eddie, and several of his maternal relatives.

Thus if Slow Down Andy can wear the roses on the first Saturday in May, he’d lift Reddam, O’Neill, and jockey Mario Gutierrez into rarefied company with a third Derby trophy, after I’ll Have Another (2012) and Nyquist. Reddam would be tied for third on the list of most successful owners in Derby history, alongside the legendary William F. Woodward’s Belair Stud. And Reddam would also join Woodward in the elite club of owner/breeders who raced father-and-son Derby winners. O’Neill would match the feat of “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons, who trained Woodward’s trio – the Triple Crown-sweeping father and son Gallant Fox and Omaha as well as Johnstown – and Max Hirsch. 

Slow Down Andy’s granddam Electric Daze was a less memorable O’Neill trainee, winning just once at Fairplex from seven starts. Edwina E failed to place in two starts for Ben Cecil, but her full brothers Electric Eddie and Rinse and Repeat were multiple stakes-placed. Electric Eddie was particularly promising, but unfortunately had his career ended by injury. 

Edwina E has proven to be more successful as a broodmare. Visiting Nyquist in his first season at stud, she produced Team Merchants, who broke his maiden at Saratoga as a juvenile in 2020. Last year, Team Merchants added to his resume by winning the Nov. 4 Let It Ride S. on the Del Mar turf, and he continues racing this season. But the four-year-old bay is now in the shadow of his baby brother and stablemate, Slow Down Andy.

Bred right back to Nyquist after foaling Team Merchants in Kentucky, Edwina E returned home to Paul and Zillah Reddam’s farm, Ocean Breeze Ranch, near Bonsall, California. That property was formerly Vessels Stallion Farm, which has a distant connection to Slow Down Andy’s ancestry. Vessels was the longtime residence of Nyquist’s great-grandsire In Excess, whose male line regained significance in the Bluegrass through his son Indian Charlie and grandson Uncle Mo. 

Edwina E delivered another Nyquist colt – this time a chestnut – on March 9, 2019. The foal we know as Slow Down Andy made a favorable impression on Ocean Breeze manager Kasey Bennett.

“A special horse” and a “looker from the start,” Bennett described him.

Slow Down Andy had a recurring fever as a baby, starting about the time he was a month old. But he overcame it all, beating it for good by late summer, and the colt continued to thrive through his stages of development.

“We had to keep switching antibiotics and blood work kept coming back fairly normal,” Bennett revealed. “Must have made him all that much stronger!”

Slow Down Andy’s good nature was evident in his early training, also at Ocean Breeze. 

“He was as gentle as they come,” Bennett said. “We used him to accompany (fellow Reddam homebred) Worse Read Sanchez because he went like an older four-year old from the get-go and served as a great role model for the tougher, immature horses.”

Reddam often gives his horses colorful names with a personal backstory, and golf is the context for both Slow Down Andy and Worse Read Sanchez, according to Daily Racing Form. Slow Down Andy refers to golfing buddy Andy Redmond who has a tendency to play too fast. Worse Read Sanchez alludes to a bad read by Reddam’s caddy that led him to miss a putt. He’s the logical follow-up to an earlier Reddam horse, Bad Read Sanchez. The added zing comes from the fact that the caddy is named Suarez. 

Slow Down Andy’s early education gives him a connection to the most recent California-bred Kentucky Derby hero, California Chrome. He learned the ropes under the tutelage of Dihigi Gladney, a former jockey who became the exercise rider for “Chrome” as an older horse. 

Gladney and his team are currently working with Slow Down Andy’s younger half-brother, a newly-turned two-year-old by I’ll Have Another. Repatriated from Japan, I’ll Have Another is once more under the Reddam banner at Ocean breeze.

“Dihigi would describe him as a beast,” Bennett said of the yet-unnamed juvenile. “They think he will follow in the same footsteps as his half-brother. It is very exciting to have him here for training as we know how impressive Edwina E can be as a broodmare.”

Slow Down Andy maintained Edwina E’s perfect record as a producer, becoming her third winner from three foals old enough to race. After an impressive debut at Santa Anita, and a solid second in the Golden State Juvenile at Del Mar, Slow Down Andy stamped himself as a Derby contender in the Dec. 11 Los Alamitos Futurity (G2). In his first try in open company, and over a route of ground, he floored Bob Baffert’s 1-2 favorite Messier, with a nine-length gap back to third.

Cheering him on from Ocean Breeze, Bennett is thrilled to see Slow Down Andy on the Derby trail.

“He was always honest and it obviously shows off now. We could not be more proud of what he has accomplished. 

“We are so grateful to the Reddams for giving the team here the opportunity to work with such talent!”

More talent could be on the way. Edwina E is currently back in Kentucky preparing for another tryst with Nyquist, and hopefully a new sibling for Slow Down Andy. 

Like his namesake on the golf course, Slow Down Andy wants to play fast, and that mindset can carray him a long way on the racetrack. 

Photos courtesy of Kasey Bennett of Ocean Breeze Ranch