Slow Down Andy gets blinkers, Sunland win, Kentucky Derby bid
Racing for the first time with blinkers, Slow Down Andy (6-5) resisted a spirited but rank rally in the homestretch from Bye Bye Bobby (5-1) to win the $500,000 Sunland Park Derby on an 86-degree Sunday evening in southern New Mexico.
With the victory, Slow Down Andy earned a berth in the May 7 running of the Kentucky Derby. The race was worth 50-20-10-5 qualifying points to the top four finishers, although Slow Down Andy was the only one of the top three who was among the Triple Crown nominations that close Monday.
The homebred Reddam Racing colt, who was sired by 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, stayed in touch through the first half-mile with early pacesetter Straight Up G (8-5), last month’s Mine That Bird Derby winner who set torrid fractions at 22.30, 45.35 seconds.
Running to the inside under jockey Mario Gutiérrez, Slow Down Andy took the lead before turning for home, reaching three-quarters of a mile in 1:09.54.
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Bye Bye Bobby, a locally based horse trained by Todd Fincher, raced wide into the stretch and took a brief lead, clocked at 1:36.88 for the mile. He lost ground, though, drifting to the outside before jockey Roimes Chirinos got him straightened out only to come up a half-length short in the duel to the wire against Slow Down Andy.
Slow Down Andy finished the 1 1/8-mile race in 1:50.16 on the fast main track at Sunland Park.
Pepper Spray (49-1) finished nine lengths behind Slow Down Andy to take third, a half-length ahead of fourth-place Fowler Blue (48-1). The $1 superfecta paid $847.30.
With the win, Slow Down Andy rebounded from a sixth-place finish last month in the Risen Star (G2) at Fair Grounds. His most recent win before Sunday was in December in the Los Alamitos Futurity (G2).
This was the first running of the Sunland Park Derby in three years. It was called off in 2020 and 2021 because of New Mexico’s COVID restrictions that had shut down racing at the track near El Paso, Texas.