The gray or roan colt is a grade 1 winning millionaire Pavel which Reddam raced and now resides at his Ocean Breeze Ranch near Bonsall, California, and rose into the top 10 on the Road to the Kentucky Derby (G1) standings by 20 points. Pavel faces an advertised fee of $4,000.
“Mr. Reddam sends all his horses to John Brocklebank in Utah to be trained and trained. Pavlovian was one of the stars John really liked early on,” said Matt Nakatani, Reddam’s racing manager. “From day one he came in with high expectations. We had the feeling that once he was allowed to drive two turns, we would 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 immediately entered the stakes competition 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, including stumbling and losing his rider in the Golden State Juvenile Stakes at Sea 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.
Next goal was the 1 1/16-mile Sunland Park Derby, where Reddam bred himself Slow down, Andy in 2022, when the race was held at 1 1/8 miles and rated Grade 3. Slow Down Andy and Pavlovian both delivered similar performances, gaining the upper hand in hard-fought battles along the way. Slow Down Andy won by half a length.
“When we got the first chance to stretch it, we were really looking forward to it,” Nakatani said. “So in his last two races he was the horse we were hoping for all along.”
Pavlovian defeated the even-money favorite Express child and gave O’Neill his fourth victory in the Sunland Park Derby, tying Bob Baffert for the most ever.
“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 father and mother, Bellamy Road winner Mandy’s Grace.
“Pavel can be a difficult horse, but his offspring seem smart and relatively easy-going,” says Kasey Bennett, farm manager at Ocean Breeze. “He’s spirited and the mare also had an attitude; she can be bossy. But if you can train them well, I think that attitude will pay off on the racetrack. We saw that in Sunland, where Pavlovian didn’t give up when he got a push and kept fighting.”
Pavel wins the 2016 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs
Bloodstock agent Dennis O’Neill purchased Mandy’s Grace on behalf of Reddam for $85,000 at the 2017 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale from the consignment of Niall Brennan Stables. Mandy’s Grace is out of the class 2 winner Magicalmysterycat (Storm Cat) and is a half-sister of class 3 winner AP Magie (AP Indy). She became a winner at the age of three, but her racing career was sidelined by injury. Reddam then bred her with it Frosted and offered her at the 2018 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, where she was repurchased at a final bid of $95,000.
As a broodmare she has produced three winners, with Pavlovian being her first stakes winner. The mare is now owned by Barton Thoroughbreds, from which she produced a filly this year 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 is now with Darley Stallions at Jonabell Farm in Lexington. The rest of the mares are divided between the stallions Pavel and Ocean Breeze List a grade 3 winner by Reddam’s stallion Square Eddie, who is now retired.
According to Bennett, supporting racing in California is at the heart of Reddam’s breeding program.
“Everything we send to Nyquist comes back here as a foal and is bred back to a California sire so they can all be Cal bred. Paul is just a huge supporter of racing in California,” she said.
Reddam and his team would also like to see a homebred make its way to the Kentucky Derby. Reddam has lifted the Kentucky Derby trophy twice, with Nyquist and with I’ll Have Another in 2012. In 2022, he came close to a homebred starter with Slow Down Andy, a son of Nyquist, who soon came down with a fever after being shipped to Churchill Downs.
“What I really liked about Pavel as a racehorse is that he raced and raced and never got hurt,” Bennett said. “He’s a tough, spirited horse, and he’s passing that on. And John Brocklebank keeps commenting on how big the strides are in Pavel’s runners, so we’re hopeful. A homebred in the Derby is what we’re all hoping for, and with Slow Down Andy we were almost there.”
Pavlovian is next entered for the April 4 Santa Anita Derby (G1), a premier 1 1/8-mile Derby prep that awards 100 points to the winner and awards 50-25-15-10 points to the next four finishers.
“I don’t think more ground is going to hurt him,” Nakatani said.
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