Reddam Homebred Pavlovian Stirring Up Derby Hopes

Pavlovian became owner/breeder J. Paul Reddam's 22nd homebred black-type stakes winner since 2014 when he captured the Sunland Park Derby in dramatic fashion by a nose Feb. 15 and is on a solid track to become his first homebred Kentucky Derby (G1) starter. The gray or roan colt is by grade 1-winning millionaire Pavel, who Reddam raced and now stands at his Ocean Breeze Ranch near Bonsall, Calif., and rose into the top 10 on the Road to the Kentucky Derby (G1) leaderboard with 20 points. Pavel stands for an advertised fee of $4,000. "Mr. Reddam sends all his horses to John Brocklebank in Utah to be broke and trained. Pavlovian was one of the stars early on that John really liked," said Matt Nakatani, Reddam's racing manager. "From day one, he came in with high expectations. We felt once he got to go two turns, we'd see the best of him." With trainer Doug O'Neill, Pavlovian became a winner in his second career start at Santa Anita Park and then went right into stakes competition next out in the 6-furlong Best Pal Stakes (G3), where he finished second. The colt then had mixed results in his next four races for Cal-breds, which included stumbling and losing his rider in the Golden State Juvenile Stakes at Del Mar on the Breeders' Cup World Championships Oct. 31 undercard. O'Neill regrouped, and in the first start of the year, Pavlovian ran third in the 1 1/16-mile California Chrome Cal Cup Derby. The next target was the 1 1/16-mile Sunland Park Derby where Reddam had raced homebred Slow Down Andy in 2022, when the race was run at 1 1/8 miles and rated a grade 3. Slow Down Andy and Pavlovian both produced similar performances, prevailing in hard-fought battles down the stretch. Slow Down Andy won by half a length. "Once we had the first opportunity to stretch him out, we were really looking forward to it," Nakatani said. "So in his last two races, he's been the horse that we have been hoping for all along." Pavlovian beat even-money favorite Express Kid and gave O'Neill his fourth win in the Sunland Park Derby, tying him with Bob Baffert for the most all-time. "He's so competitive; he's a feisty, classy guy," O'Neill said after the Sunland Derby. "That horse (Express Kid) is so good. He beat a legit horse and just a great effort." Pavlovian apparently inherited his feistiness from both his sire and dam, the Bellamy Road winner Mandy's Grace. "Pavel can be a difficult horse but his progeny seem to be smart and relatively easy to deal with," said Kasey Bennett, farm manager at Ocean Breeze. "He is feisty and the mare also had an attitude; she can be bossy. If you can train them properly, though, I think that attitude pays off on the racetrack. We saw that at Sunland where Pavlovian didn't give up when he got pushed a bit and fought on." Bloodstock agent Dennis O'Neill bought Mandy's Grace on Reddam's behalf for $85,000 at the 2017 Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale out of Niall Brennan Stables' consignment. Mandy's Grace is out of the grade 2 winner Magicalmysterycat (Storm Cat) and is a half sister to grade 3-placed winner A.P. Magie (A.P. Indy). She became a winner at 3 and then had her racing career sidelined by an injury. Reddam then bred her to Frosted and offered her at the 2018 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale where she was bought back on a final bid of $95,000. As a broodmare, she has produced three winners with Pavlovian her first stakes winner. The mare now belongs to Barton Thoroughbreds where she produced a filly this year by Shaaz. Reddam has a broodmare band of more than 30 mares at Ocean Breeze. A select group goes to Nyquist, who won the 2016 Kentucky Derby for Reddam and O'Neill and now stands at Darley Stallions at Jonabell Farm in Lexington. The rest of the mares are divided between Ocean Breeze's stallions Pavel and Listing, a grade 3 winner by Reddam's stallion Square Eddie, who is now pensioned. Supporting California racing is at the heart of Reddam's breeding program, according to Bennett. "Everything we send to Nyquist comes back to foal here and be bred back to a California sire so they can all be Cal-breds. Paul is just a big supporter of California racing," she said. Reddam and his team are also keen to see a homebred find its way into the Kentucky Derby. Reddam has hoisted the Kentucky Derby trophy twice, with Nyquist and with I'll Have Another in 2012. He came close to having a homebred starter in 2022 with Slow Down Andy, a son of Nyquist, who spiked a fever soon after being shipped to Churchill Downs. "What I really loved about Pavel as a racehorse is that he raced and raced and never got hurt," Bennett said. "He is a tough, gritty horse, and he is passing that on. And John Brocklebank just keeps commenting on how big the strides are in Pavel's runners, so we're hopeful. A homebred in the Derby is what we are all hoping for, and we almost got there with Slow Down Andy." Pavlovian is being aimed next for the April 4 Santa Anita Derby (G1), a 1 1/8-mile premier Derby prep that offers 100 points to the winner and allocates 50-25-15-10 points to the next four finishers. "I don't think more ground is going to hurt him at all," Nakatani said.