After his victory in the Dec. 11 Los Alamitos Futurity, Slow Down Andy certainly has helped to speed up the consolidation of stallion prestige for the second-crop sire Nyquist (by Uncle Mo), who was a champion juvenile colt in 2015 and winner of the next year's Kentucky Derby.
A year ago at this time, Nyquist was cantering under the wire as the leading freshman sire of a good-looking group that included two other successful sons of Uncle Mo. That freshman sire title was made much easier by the successes of Vequist, the champion juvenile filly of 2020, whose $1.2 million in earnings represented about half of her sire's freshman crop earnings last year.
Nearly all of Vequist's haul accrued over a 60-day period from Vequist's maiden victory in the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga on Sept. 6 to her title-winning victory in the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 6 last season. The mass of her earnings propelled Nyquist to a clear leadership among freshmen sires with a margin of $864,335 over Laoban (Uncle Mo) and Not This Time (Giant's Causeway), who were separated by $2,610.
This year, however, Vequist made only one start, finishing ninth as the odds-on favorite in her seasonal debut, the G2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream. The filly was bumped at the start, made no progress on the turn, and was eased to the wire but walked off after the finish. Vequist worked through the summer but did not start and was sold at the Fasig-Tipton November sale for $3.4 million to Spendthrift Farm.
In the absence of the champion, the Nyquist 3-year-olds struggled for a bit but then picked up tempo. In particular, Gretzky the Great won the Greenwood Stakes at Woodbine in August, Team Merchants won the Let It Ride at Del Mar in November, and Willful Woman finished second in the G2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico back in May.
Once again, however, the juveniles were the source of power for the Nyquist engine. Four 2-year-olds by the sire have now won stakes, and six are stakes-placed, with three having graded stakes placings. In addition to Slow Down Andy, there is the sire's leading earner Tunerloose (winner of the rich Juvenile Fillies Stakes at Kentucky Downs), Lemieux (Juvenile Fillies Stakes at Gulfstream), and Curly Girl (Lady Finger Stakes at Finger Lakes). The six stakes-placed juveniles include Sequist (third in the G1 Alcibiades), American Xperiment (third in the G1 Del Mar Futurity), and Credibility (third in the G2 Bourbon Stakes).
The depth of the stallion's second crop holds much of the promise for his potential to carry forward this momentum into next season. Should a classic colt, in particular, develop from of this group, Nyquist would be settled in an enviable position among other young, upwardly mobile sires.
Slow Down Andy might just be the ticket for the classic hopes held for his sire. Both the winner and the highly regarded second-place finisher in the Los Alamitos Futurity, Bob Hope Stakes winner Messier (Empire Maker), drew away from their competition in the stretch of the Futurity, finishing nine lengths ahead of third-place Barossa (Into Mischief).
Bred in California by owner Reddam Racing, Slow Down Andy is the third foal and third winner from the Square Eddie mare Edwina E, who did not win in a pair of starts, but has been a star producer. Her second and third foals are both by Nyquist and are the stakes winners Team Merchants and Slow Down Andy. Edwina E is a full sister to a pair of stakes-placed performers, as well as two other racers who earned six figures.
All are by Square Eddie, a son of Smart Strike who more than earned his stripes as a sire in California. Winner of the G1 Breeders' Futurity in his first American start in 2008, Square Eddie was next out second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and looked like one of the stars of the division for the next season's classics.
Although the colt placed second in the 2009 G3 San Rafael and third in the G2 Lexington Stakes, the hopes for the colt went to pieces thereafter. Off six months, Square Eddie returned to race for owner Paul Reddam and trainer Doug O'Neill, but the good-looking horse never won another important race. Sent to Vessels Stallion Station in 2010, Square Eddie returned to race the following year. Although the owner persevered with Square Eddie through 2011, the horse never even placed in another stakes.
By that time, his commercial appeal had waned, and Reddam stood the horse in California at Ocean Breeze Ranch, where he was pensioned in 2020. The horse sired 17 stakes winners, including Grade 1 winner Ralis, and has total progeny earnings of more than $16 million.
Reddam bred and raced nearly all the good stock by Square Eddie, including the five siblings mentioned above, and in Slow Down Andy, Reddam may have the colt who makes the wait worthwhile.
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