TOBA Breeders of the Year: Paul and Zillah Reddam

BY EMILY SHIELDS

Square Eddie is the gift that keeps on giving.

Te son of Smart Strike was a grade 1 winner at 2 and graded stakes-placed at 3 for owners Paul and Zillah Reddam. He has gone on to be one of the great stallions in modern California history, with more than $16 million in progeny earnings. His prowess has helped the Reddams win their second title, for 2019, as the Toroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s State Breeder of the Year for California. Tey previously won the award in 2015.

Best known for their success with Kentucky Derby (G1) winners and champions Nyquist and I’ll Have Another, the Reddams have been among the leading breeders in California for years. Teir 2019 standouts include California-breds Eddie Haskell, Listing, and Don’t Sell, all by Square Eddie, and they topped all other California breeders in 2019 with purse earnings of $2,928,938.

Eddie Haskell races for James Hailey and Philip Wood. Te bay gelding has earned $627,707, with wins in the Daytona Stakes (G3T) and the Siren Lure Stakes in 2019. He was ultimately sent of as the second choice in an international feld for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) in No

ANNE M. EBERHARDT

vember, but fnished 11th.

Listing, an earner of $280,400, runs for his breeders, the Reddams. He won three stakes in 2019, starting with the $100,351 California Cup Turf Sprint in January, followed by the $91,000 Desert Code Stakes in June. He took his show on the road to win the grade 3, $100,000 Quick Call Stakes at Saratoga by a half-length on a yielding turf course.

Reddam homebred Don’t Sell won four of 10 starts in 2019, including the $100,205 Unzip Me Stakes at Santa Anita in September. She was also twice stakes-placed for the year, those efforts coming at Santa Anita and Del Mar.

Other Reddam-bred horses include fve-time winner Carnivorous, three-time winner Prodigal Son, and $341,952-earner An Eddie Surprise, a mare by Square Eddie who won the 2020 Wishing Well Stakes in February. More winners include Vegan, Hit the Seam, Acai, Wandering Patrol, Cheap Cheap Cheap, and Lippy, the latter stakes-placed in 2019.

Paul Reddam is quick to pass credit on to Kasey Bennett, who manages Ocean Breeze Ranch.

“Kasey and her team do everything,” Reddam said, “and Zillah goes down to the ranch quite a bit as well.”

Square Eddie has recently been pensioned, following several seasons of declining fertility.

Paul and Zillah Reddam: TOBA’s State Breeder of the Year for California for the second time

“It’s a shame because he’s just 14 years old,” Reddam said. “He should have had another seven years. It really makes the job of Kasey and her crew even more impressive because so many mares wouldn’t catch and they would have to be bred again.”

Instead of slowing, the Reddams are taking the loss in stride. Ocean Breeze is now standing two young stallions: $2,090,351-earner and grade 1 winner Pavel and Square Eddie’s talented son Mrazek.

“He looks just like Square Eddie,” Reddam said of Mrazek, a four-time winner who was top three in 10 of 13 career starts. “He soundly defeated (fellow homebred) Ralis in the Graduation Stakes at Del Mar in 2015 and was supposed to go back to Saratoga for the grade 1 Hopeful Stakes. He ended up injured before shipping, and Ralis went and won it. We have to assume Mrazek would have done well there. We are very optimistic about him.”

Mrazek returned to the track as a sophomore and added the 2016 Tor’s Echo Handicap at Santa Anita before retiring with earnings of $312,304. He will now carry on the legacy of his sire, and the hopes of his breeders, who are so deserving of the TOBA award.