Page 28 - April 2007 The Game
P. 28

28 The Game, April 2007 Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Paul Reddam: The Most Famous Horse Owner You’ve Never Heard Of
Jockey Frankie Dettori showers Red Rocks & owner Paul Reddam with flower petals after winning the 2006 BC Turf. Photo - Cindy Pierson Dulay www.horse-races.net
Eurico - Fan Favourite in Singapore
Woodbine based Jockey Eurico Rosa Da Silva was quite popu- lar with the fans earlier this year when he rode at the Singapore Turf Club. His familiar fist pump whenever he crossed the finish line first showed his never waning enthusiasm for riding which ignited the fans.
Looking to keep active during the winter, Eurico had consid- ered riding in the United States. However he decided on Singapore as his wife was originally from the area and it was a racetrack he had ridden at previously in his career.
His two month contract in Singapore began January 1 and, in a rare occurrence, the Turf Club offered him a two month riding extension because of the excitement he had created with the racing public. Eurico graciously turned down the offer as he was anxious to return to Woodbine to prepare for opening day, March 31.
While in Singapore, Eurico rode eight race meets, winning four races with eight seconds and four third place finishes.
best year in Toronto in 2006 with 61 wins and purse earnings of more than $2.3 million.
He had one
stakes win in 2006
with Shot Gun Ela,
who went wire to
wire in the Ontario Fashion Stakes. It was the second straight year that Eurico had won that event.
His agent, Don Parente, says Eurico is an ideal client because he works hard and is reliable. He says that trainers like him because he will try hard to get third or even fifth money in a race, understanding that every cheque matters to most owners.
For the 2007 meet at Woodbine, Eurico will be coming off his
Don Parente can be reached at 647-407-6748
Eurico Rosa Da Silva winning in Singapore
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It’s not as if he just suddenly materialized on this planet, but the first we heard about Paul Reddam was when we realized the guy had six horses running in the 2006 Breeders’ Cup races at Churchill Downs. You know how it is for us north of the 49th; when we hear that a Canadian is taking on and beating the Americans in a major endeavour, our ears perk up.
For the record, 51 year old Paul Reddam was born and raised in Windsor and he’s actually been in the horseracing game for several decades.
“I claimed my first horse, a harness horse, at Greenwood Raceway in 1979,” he says. “His name was Brev Hanover.”
Blessed with a significant degree of intelligence, Reddam won a scholarship to the University of Southern California and apparently the educational money didn’t come with any strings attached.
“With some of the scholarship money, I claimed some standardbreds at Hollywood,” he says. “It was some fun. I won some and lost some. I began to get interested in the thoroughbred game during the 80s and got a couple of horses in 1988 and 1989. I kind of drifted out again and then got a couple more in the mid 90s.”
Hopefully, this narrative so far isn’t painting the picture of an aimless slacker, wasting all his money on slow moving horses. While whetting his appetite for racing stock, Reddam built a mortgage company named Ditech Funding. Several years ago he found a buyer for Ditech and this was not a low claiming affair.
“I sold Ditech Funding for several hundred million,” he says calmly, as his interviewer struggles not to whistle into the phone. Now laden down with a serious fortune, Reddam found he had many more friends than he used to. So he began another company that is also functioning at a healthy profit.
“Since everyone was starting to borrow money from me, I decided to make a business of it,” he says with a palpable sense of humour in his voice. “So I started Cash Call which makes personal loans.”
In the year 2000, Reddam decided to get into the thoroughbred game in a serious and committed way.
“The first good horse I had was Swept Overboard,” he says. “He won the Grade 1 Ancient Title in 2001 at Santa Anita, which was a surprise because he beat Kona Gold
at the time. Then he won the Met Mile at Belmont which is a Grade 1 also.”
Swept overboard, as he was now with the sport, Reddam decided to develop a stable. He claims to be lucky, but much of that luck has come from surrounding himself with knowledge.
Case in point: Wilko.
“In September of 2004, I bought Wilko for $750,000 because my racing manager Jamie McCalmont liked the horse,” says Reddam. “He’s never won again, but he finished second in the Dubai World Cup and we got $1,200,000 for that.”
Less than two months later, Wilko won the Breeders Cup Juvenile which had a purse of $1,500,000. The winner gets 65%; in other words, Wilko paid himself off in a hurry.
Reddam followed a similar script to acquire Red Rocks, which he says provided him with his biggest thrill in horse racing.
“Red Rocks won the Breeders’ Cup Turf, which was the richest turf race ever run in North America,” says Reddam of the 2006 race at Churchill Downs. “It had a bit of deja vu to it because the jockey was Frankie Dettori who rode Wilko and he was also found by Jamie McCalmont and, just like the day when Wilko won, I had several horses race on the day and they all lost and Red Rocks was my last hope.”
Red Rocks’ impressive win that day is still crystal clear in Reddam’s mind.
“Dettori took the horse back and made one big sweeping wide move and you could see at the 8th pole he was going to win. That was tremendous.”
Tremendous is right. Reddam’s share was $1.8million and the bettors who backed Red Rocks got over 10-1.
We’re not sure if Reddam is a poker player, but he’s sitting on a full house for this year’s Kentucky Derby weekend. Reddam has two terrific fillies ready to contest the Kentucky Oaks on the Friday before the Derby and he could have three outstanding colts in the Run for the Roses. His potential Derby starters are Great Hunter, a son of Aptitude; Liquidity, sired by Tiznow; and Notional, from the Irish stallion, In Excess. Pressed to choose his favorite from among those, Reddam makes a reluctant pick.
“They’re like having three kids. If any one of them did well I’d be excited,” he says. “Great Hunter having won the Lanes
End Futurity last October was pretty exciting. I’ve got a special place for him.”
Liquidity did not enhance his Derby chances with a non-descript sixth place finish in the Louisiana Derby on March 10.
“He’s going to come back in the Santa Anita Derby,” advises Reddam. “If he runs well, he’ll definitely go to the Derby.”
Notional appears to be preparing brilliantly for the first Saturday in May.
“He’s won his last two
starts,” proclaims
Reddam. “He won the
Risen Star Stakes at the Fairgrounds and he won the San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita. He doesn’t seem to perform as well on the polytrack but he’s undefeated on dirt.”
The two Oaks candidates are Cash Included and Mistical Plan, a granddaugh- ter of Danzig.
“Cash Included ran third in the Santa Anita Oaks which was won by Ragstoriches,” says Reddam. “She has yet to return to her two year old form but we’re hoping that she’s now in shape to take a step forward. Mistical Plan won the Sunshine Million Oaks at Santa Anita and then she won the Fairground Oaks. She went off at 7-1 and got a nice ride from Cory Nakatani, so her next race is the Kentucky Oaks.”
Reddam says he’s always on the lookout for a terrific horse, though his efforts to purchase aren’t always successful. He tells an interesting story about trying to buy the three year old Tapit before the 2004 Derby. When the deal couldn’t be consummated, Reddam made what he claims is the largest wager of his life - $50,000 to win on Tapit in the Derby. Tapit didn’t come close, and strangely, losing an enormous amount of money bore with it little sting.
“I had mixed feelings because, when the horse lost, I lost my 50,” he says. “But I felt I had saved several million dollars that I would have spent on the horse. It was kind of a neutral feeling.”
These days, Reddam has a stable of about 25 topnotch thoroughbreds and he’s
doing what he can to give back to the game, sponsoring the Cash Call Mile at Hollywood.
“This year it will be a million dollar race. I put up half. It’s a mile on the grass for older fillies. Last year it was won by a Japanese filly called Dance in the Mood. My horse, Dancing Edie finished fourth.”
Which brings up an interesting question: If Reddam owned the horse that won the race that he sponsored, would he present the trophy to himself?
“I wouldn’t mind doing that,” he answers dryly.
Reddam has never abandoned his Canadian roots and certainly would enter a horse in the major Canadian races if the right one came along.
“I would love to have a Queen’s Plate horse,” he says with passion. “But you have to find it. If we had a horse for the EP Taylor or the Pattison Canadian International, then we’d come up.”
While he works on that project, Reddam has a Kentucky Derby weekend to get ready for. He knows what an emotional trip bringing a horse to the Derby can be.
“It’s a lot of anxiety all day. It takes forever until six o’clock and then it’s over in a blink.”
And what if one of Great Hunter, Liquidity or Notional just happened to run first on May 5th?
“I would be completely startled. I think I would be stunned.”


































































































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