Team Merchants returned to winning form with a powerful six-length victory in the Bill Thomas Memorial Stakes at Sunland Park on Sunday, 27 March.
It was the second Stakes win for the four-year-old Nyquist colt, who now boasts Stakes wins on both turf and dirt. As a three-year-old, Team Merchants captured the Let It Ride Stakes on the turf at Del Mar.
Partnered once again with jockey Mario Gutierrez, Team Merchants broke sharply went immediately to the lead. From that point, the rest of the race was just a formality, as Team Merchants went into cruise control, easily maintaining an easy lead throughout the rest of the six-and-a-half furlong contest. The bay colt began to draw off in the stretch, eventually crossing the wire six-lengths in front of his next rival.
Team Merchants was bred in Kentucky by his owner, Reddam Racing LLC. He is a full-brother to Slow Down Andy, winner of the G2 Los Alamitos Futurity last year as a juvenile and is one of the contenders for the 2022 G1 Kentucky Derby. Both colts are out of the mare, Edwina E (by Square Eddie), a full sister to the multiple Stakes-placed pair of Electric Eddie and Rinse and Repeat.
The leading first crop sire of 2020, Nyquist is off to a hot start in 2022. In addition to Team Merchants and Slow Down Andy, the stallion is represented by Scalding, recent winner of the G3 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay; Turnerloose, winner of the G2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes and Awake At Midnyte, third-place finisher in the G2 Rachel Alexandra and second in the G2 Santa Ynez Stakes.
Nyquist is standing the 2022 breeding season at Jonabell Farm for $55,000, stands and nurses.
