A suggestion made by owner J. Paul Reddam paid big dividends Saturday at Los Alamitos.
Rather than run in the $100,000 King Glorious Stakes Sunday, an ungraded event restricted to 2-year-olds bred or sired in California, Reddam wanted to try the Grade II, $300,000 Los Alamitos Futurity with his homebred Slow Down Andy (Nyquist – Edwina E by Square Eddie).
Making his first start against open company and first beyond seven furlongs, the son of 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist was up to the challenge, upsetting heavily-favored Messier under jockey Mario Gutierrez.
Reserved off the pace set by longshot Olympic Legend and stablemate Durante, Slow Down Andy, who is trained by Doug O’Neill, took over the lead early in the stretch, surrendered it to Messier, the 1-2 choice, when he lugged in, but regained his momentum and went on to win by one length. He completed the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.33.
Out of the Square Eddie (Reddam’s Canadian-bred Grade 1 winner) mare Edwina E, Slow Down Andy ended Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert’s stranglehold on the Futurity. Baffert had won all seven of renewals at Los Alamitos since daytime thoroughbred racing returned in 2014.
The 5-1 third choice in the field of five, Slow Down Andy returned $12.40 and $3.40. There was no show wagering. Messier, who had won his two previous races by a combined 10 lengths, paid $2.10 while finishing nine lengths clear of stablemate Barossa. Durante and Olympic Legend completed the order of finish.
The victory was worth $180,000 and increased Slow Down Andy’s earnings to $249,850. He graduated first time out at 5 ½ furlongs Oct. 9 at Santa Anita before finishing second as the favorite in the Golden State Juvenile last month at Del Mar.
“He’s showed us from the beginning he’s a nice horse,’’ said Reddam. “I suggested we run in here. I think everybody thought I was nuts, but they didn’t have the nerve to say so.’’
O’Neill, who missed winning the 2020 Futurity by a nose with 33-1 shot The Great One, admitted he would have chosen the King Glorious for Slow Down Andy’s third career start rather than the Futurity.
“One hundred percent that’s what I would have done,’’ he said. “This was strictly Paul wanting to take a chance and having faith in Slow Down Andy and thank God he did.
“We figured (Durante, who finished fourth) would show speed and being in post five with Slow Down Andy we hoped (Gutierrez) would get good position and ride his race.
“Down the stretch it looked like we had it, then we didn’t and then we did, so it was very exciting.
“He doesn’t really remind me of Nyquist. This horse has a lot of different gears and Nyquist was just a beast, so precocious. This horse is pretty calm and more mentally versatile at this stage than Nyquist ever was.’’
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