Summer expectations are high for Slow Down Andy, who starts over Saturday in the $125,000 Los Alamitos Derby. The field’s only graded winner, Slow Down Andy will race for the first time since a spring illness knocked him out of the Kentucky Derby picture. Even though Slow Down Andy has not raced since winning the Grade 3 Sunland Derby on March 27, no worries. He is ready to fire, according to trainer Doug O’Neill. “His last three works have been pretty sensational,” O’Neill said. “The last few weeks, it was like – woo! – he looks like he’s back.” Another who starts over on Saturday is trainer Bob Baffert, who returned this week from a 90-day suspension. Baffert has won the Los Alamitos Derby five straight years, 6 of 8 overall. He starts High Connection and Doppelganger. Got Thunder and Win the Day complete the five-runner Derby, a 1 1/8-mile race that has lost significance since wins by Shared Belief (2014), Accelerate (2016), and West Coast (2017). This year for the first time the Los Alamitos Derby is not graded. But the race is important for Slow Down Andy, whose Kentucky Derby aspirations ended following his Sunland Derby victory. After shipping Slow Down Andy to Kentucky, O’Neill said the colt was “dehydrated, not well, under the weather.” “It took him about three weeks to start feeling better,” he said. :: Bet the races on DRF Bets! Sign up with code WINNING to get a $250 Deposit Match, $10 Free Bet, and FREE DRF Formulator. The illness precluded Slow Down Andy from running in the Triple Crown races, but it did not change the opinion of O’Neill or owner-breeders Paul and Zilla Reddam. A California-bred by Nyquist with three wins including two graded stakes, the colt’s credentials were clear. Slow Down Andy returned to California and resumed workouts in late May. “We had lots of options,” O’Neill said. “We were thinking Iowa Derby, Indiana Derby. We were even thinking about the [Real Good Deal at Del Mar]. He had won the Los Al Futurity. We figured he likes the surface.” The Los Alamitos Derby made sense, and O’Neill tightened the screws. “We knew the Los Al Derby going a mile and one-eighth, there would be some toughies in there, so we had to have him really right,” O’Neill said. In his final drill July 2 at Santa Anita, Slow Down Andy worked six furlongs from the gate and blew away Hockey Dad, who returns Friday in race 6. Slow Down Andy, whose rider is Mario Gutierrez, faces modest competition Saturday. High Connection could be the second betting choice. He and blinkers-on Doppelganger worked six furlongs in company July 3 at Santa Anita. They received the same 1:13.20 work time, although Doppelganger appeared to finish better and gallop out with more energy. Blinkers may have woken him up. High Connection won for Baffert in his debut, followed by two runner-up finishes, including in the Grade 3 Affirmed for trainer Sean McCarthy. Doppelganger finished third in the Affirmed, a half-length behind High Connection, but their team work suggests he could turn the tables on Saturday.