From Pucks to Paddock, Hockey's Noticeable Influence

Sports can lead to interesting rivalries and partnerships. Look at the National Hockey League. Two of its teams, the Detroit Red Wings and the Colorado Avalanche, have been bitter rivals for decades. Three times they met in the Western Conference Finals in the late 1990s-early 2000s, with the winner of their matchups going on to win the Stanley Cup. 

But in horse racing, Red Wings and Avalanche aren't necessarily rivals. It's no secret that owner/breeder Paul Reddam is a big Red Wings fan—several of the horses he's owned have carried names inspired by Red Wings players. He's partnered numerous times with Erik Johnson of ERJ Racing. Johnson spent parts of 14 seasons with the Avalanche.

"Over the years, I've named a number of horses after players," Reddam said. "Some of the horses were very unsuccessful, and a couple burst through. … I'm good friends with Erik Johnson, who retired a year ago, and he was bugging me about partnering up on something or other, and I named a couple of horses after Red Wings just to irritate him."

Those horses are stakes winner Mrazek and leading sire Nyquist . They are named for Petr Mrazek, the former Detroit goalie, and Gustav Nyquist, a right wing.

Another horse Reddam has bestowed a Red Wings-centric name on is Pavel , for Pavel Datsyuk, who is the his favorite player of the last 25 years.

And the Red Wings caught wind of the names. In 2016, the team's television announcers came to Santa Anita Park and visited Nyquist. The following year, when the Red Wings were playing in Anaheim, Calif., Reddam got to meet the human Nyquist and some of his teammates. 

"The players apparently got quite a kick out of one of their teammates being named for what turned out to be the Derby winner," Reddam said.

And with the NHL beginning its preseason schedule this week, it made for a perfect opportunity to ask Reddam about the similarities between the two sports.

"They're both very fast sports, and hockey is kind of unique for professional sports in that it has two intermissions because we're playing three periods versus other sports that are divided into quarters," he said. "There's a lull and then extreme action and then a lull. And horse racing is like that where it's very quiet until the race actually happens, and it's usually over in two minutes or less, and then you take another break. Both sports are supercharged with excitement when they're happening."

There are plenty of examples of the two worlds meeting. St. Elias Stables is headed by Vinnie Viola, who also owns the NHL's Florida Panthers. There is Gretzky the Great, the grade 1-winning son of Nyquist, named for Wayne Gretzky, and who stands in Venezuela. There is also graded stakes winner Messier, named for Mark Messier, and who, as of earlier this year, is continuing his stallion career in Saudi Arabia. That's just three examples. There are plenty more. 

Reddam mentioned Pavel, who stood this year at Ocean Breeze Ranch near Bonsall, Calif., for $4,000. He is the sire of Pavlovian, a Reddam Racing homebred, who was second in this year's Louisiana Derby (G2). 

"He's having a phenomenal year now," he said of Pavel. "Mind you, he has a very small foal crop, but he's actually, for 2-year-olds, doing a lot better than Nyquist."

Pavel has 64 named foals with 21 winners from 41 runners. With eight black-type performers, he has the highest percentage of such horses among all sires this year at 19.5% from runners.

Meanwhile, Nyquist, who was champion 2-year-old male for 2015 and a classic winner at 3, has become equally successful in the breeding shed. 

Standing this year at Darley Stallions at Jonabell Farm near Lexington for $175,000, Nyquist sits as the No. 4-ranked stallion based on progeny earnings. 

This year's crop of runners is his seventh. Nyquist debuted as the top freshman sire of 2020 but has been second in his class every year since trailing only Not This Time . Overall, he has steadily climbed the rankings, starting at No. 88 his first year to No. 4 as of Sept. 21. 

Among his standout progeny this year are grade 1 winners  Nysos , Knightsbridge, and Immersive along with grade 1-placed, grade 3 winner Iron Honor. Others of note in recent years include Gosger, Randomized, Johannes , Xigera, Flying Connection, Slow Down Andy, and Vequist. 

Reddam said he didn't know that Nyquist, who won the first eight races of his career and earned nearly $5.2 million, would have this level of success as a sire. 

"The thing about great racehorses is there's no absolute correlation between their racing career and their stud career," he said. "When he went on his winning streak, he seemed unbeatable, but we've seen a lot of horses like that, and then they're duds at stud. And for a stud to be successful in America, it seems now you really have to have a great first season with your 2-year-olds. And Nyquist was fortunate enough to have a couple of grade 1 winners in his first crop, which kind of kept things going."

Nyquist's appeal shows no signs of diminishing. Through the first three books of the ongoing Keeneland September Yearling Sale, 55 of his offspring have sold for a gross of $30,925,000 and an average of $562,273. That ranks him third by gross behind Into Mischief  and Gun Runner , and sixth by average, though one sire ahead of him only had one of his offspring sold. In terms of total head sold, Nyquist is third behind Practical Joke  and Not This Time.

"We have some breeding rights, so we breed to Nyquist every year, and certainly this year at the Keeneland sale, I think he's had eight horses out for a million or more, which obviously indicates a lot of bullishness about him," Reddam said. "He doesn't have the big crops like a couple of the major sires, but he's shown that he's very capable of siring a brilliant horse, and I think that's what keeps his numbers so high because everyone hopes to get the next Nysos."