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Square Eddie represented by first winner Grade 1 hero Square Eddie saw his first winner as a sire on Thursday at Hollywood Park when his juvenile daughter Sprouts captured the 8TH race by 5 1/2 lengths. The Edward Freeman trainee sped to the lead when the gates opened on the 4 1/2-furlong Cushion Track maiden special weight, angled in to save ground on the rail and drew off in the lane under a hand ride from jockey Mario Gutierrez. The J. Paul Reddam homebred filly stopped the clock in :52 2/5 while making just her second career start. Sprouts was fifth in her debut at Hollywood under the same conditions on April 26. Square Eddie took three tries to break his maiden while beginning his racing career in England. He competed once more overseas following that initial win, missing by just a head in a Group 3 contest at Kempton, before shipping stateside and effortlessly capturing the Breeders' Futurity (G1) at Keeneland one month later in 2008. Subsequently transferred from John Best to Doug O'Neill's shedrow, Square Eddie closed out his juvenile campaign with a game runner-up effort in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile after dueling throughout. The chestnut son of Smart Strike ran second in the San Rafael (G3) in his three-year-old bow and third in the Lexington (G2) before recurring shin problems derailed his Kentucky Derby dreams. Square Eddie was given the summer to recover and returned in the Ancient Title (G1) at Santa Anita in October 2009. He ran sixth that day and followed it with three more unplaced efforts against stakes rivals culminating in a sixth-place run in the 2009 Malibu (G1). A suspensory issue flared up before his next intended start in the Strub (G2). Retired to stud, Square Eddie covered a book of mares at Vessels Stallion Farm near Bonsall, California, in 2010 but was returned to training and back at O'Neill's barn in September of the same year. Making his first appearance under silks in 384 days on January 14, 2011, the chestnut showed no signs of rustiness in a 6 1/2-furlong allowance test when storming home a 3 1/4-length winner at Santa Anita. In the process, he set a new dirt record for the distance when stopping the clock in 1:13.11 over the fast track. The previous record of 1:13.71 was established by Son of a Pistol in April 1998. Square Eddie was unplaced in his subsequent five starts and headed back to stud following his 2011 campaign with a career record that read 18-3-3-2, $856,042. The seven-year-old was bred in Ontario by Kinghaven Farms and is out of the multiple stakes-placed Forty Gran (El Gran Senor). His half-siblings include Canadian stakes-placed winners Reverently (Pulpit) and Hoi Ann (Successful Appeal) as well as English listed-placed Dubai Media (Songandaprayer). Square Eddie's female family includes Nydrion (Critique), queen of the 1989 Oaks d'Italia (Ity-G1); 2001 Personal Ensign Handicap (G1) heroine Pompeii (Broad Brush); and Breeders' Cup Classic-winning sire Alphabet Soup. Square Eddie currently stands for a private fee at Vessels Stallion Farm.
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