Reddams search for the next Square Eddie begins with three younger stallions

The next few years will be a period of change for the massive racing and breeding stable of Paul and Zillah Reddam, who have one of the best known operations in modern California racing.

The transition centers on a revamped list of stallions for the upcoming breeding season. In May, the Reddams announced that Square Eddie, their top stallion at Ocean Breeze Ranch in Bonsall, Calif., had been retired from stud duty because of infertility.

There are three candidates who can take his place at the top of the Ocean Breeze roster – I’ll Have Another, winner of the 2012 Kentucky Derby; Mrazek, winner of two stakes for California-breds; and Pavel, who won the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs in 2018.

All three have been bred to a small number of mares in recent years. They will determine whether the Reddam runners are a success in California, and possibly on a national basis, in the middle years of this decade and beyond.

Replacing Square Eddie will not be easy. Square Eddie, who is 14 and remains a resident at the farm, ranked third among the state’s stallions in progeny earnings in 2018 with $3,119,933. Square Eddie was fourth in 2019 with $3,352,766. Through Dec. 16, Square Eddie ranked third on the 2020 list with earnings of $2,743,554.

The 2020 state leader through Dec. 16 was I’ll Have Another with $5,020,322, although his statistics comprise his progeny from Japan, where he began his stud career. I’ll Have Another was repatriated to the United States before the 2019 breeding season. I’ll Have Another stood the last two breeding seasons at Ballena Vista Farm in Southern California.

Earlier this year, I’ll Have Another was purchased privately and moved to Ocean Breeze, which was formerly known as Vessels Stallion Farm. At the time, Paul Reddam said the acquisition was completed in part to avoid I’ll Have Another being sent overseas again.

I’ll Have Another, the champion 3-year-old male of 2012, is the highest-profile member of the group, standing for $10,000. The Reddams bred “nine or 10” mares to I’ll Have Another during his years at Ballena Vista Farm, a figure likely to substantially increase in 2021, Reddam said in mid-December.

The Reddams are advised by racing manager Dennis O’Neill, a huge backer of I’ll Have Another.

“Dennis is in love with I’ll Have Another,” Reddam said. “He’ll push for everything to be bred to I’ll Have Another.”

I’ll Have Another’s oldest American foals are weanlings.

I’ll Have Another, by Flower Alley, won 5 of 7 starts. Aside from the Kentucky Derby, I’ll Have Another won the Preakness Stakes and Santa Anita Derby in 2012. At stud in Japan, I’ll Have Another’s progeny has included the 2020 stakes winners Another Truth and Meiner Surpass. Reddam said I’ll Have Another has more to prove in his American stud career.

“I’ll Have Another sired a lot of useful horses in Japan, but not stars,” he said.

The Reddams bred 24 of their mares to Pavel in 2020, the 6-year-old’s first year at stud. Pavel, by Creative Cause, won 3 of 18 starts and earned $2,091,351 racing from 2017 to 2019. Aside from the win in the prestigious Stephen Foster, Pavel was second in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar that season. Pavel is a half-brother to the multiple stakes winner Caracortado.

Pavel will stand for $5,000 for a single mare, or $3,000 if an owner breeds multiple mares.

“Pavel is kind of an under-the-radar stallion,” Reddam said. “He did make $2 million and is a Grade 1 winner.”

Mrazek, by Square Eddie, won 4 of 13 starts and earned $312,304, racing from 2015 to 2018. He won the Graduation Stakes for California-bred 2-year-olds at Del Mar in 2015 and the Thor’s Echo Handicap against older statebreds at Santa Anita a year later.

Mrazek’s 2-year-old season was interrupted by a suspensory injury that prevented a scheduled start in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga. The Reddam stable won that race with Ralis. The Reddams bred 12 mares to Mrazek earlier this year.

“Mrazek is the spitting image of Square Eddie,” Reddam said. “If Mrazek had not gotten hurt, he would have been a Grade 1 winner. When he did come back, he did win a stakes, but he was not as pristine. He did come back. A lot of horses don’t come back from that injury.”

Reddam, 65, lives in Orange County and has operated finance companies for decades. He has an involvement in racing that stretches for decades and included a time when he owned harness horses racing at Los Alamitos.

The Reddams, whose white with purple-hooped silks are seemingly on display every racing day in Southern California, have won such Breeders’ Cup races as the 2004 Juvenile with Wilko, the 2006 Turf with Red Rocks, and the 2015 Juvenile with Nyquist.

Nyquist was the champion 2-year-old male of 2015. The following year, Nyquist gave the Reddams their second win in the Kentucky Derby.

The foals by I’ll Have Another, Mrazek, and Pavel will reach California racetracks over the next few years. For a long time, the foals by Square Eddie represented the stable. That is changing with a new leader among these stallions yet to be established, but it is looking like there is every chance for another breakthrough sire.