Belmont Stakes 2021: O'Neill takes another swing at prize that has eluded him
ELMONT, N.Y. – When it comes to the Belmont Stakes, trainer Doug O’Neill would rather think about what could be than what might have been.
On the day before the 2012 Belmont Stakes, O’Neill and owner Paul Reddam stood before a throng of reporters outside of Belmont Park’s Barn 1, explaining how Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another would be scratched from the Belmont and subsequently retired with a tendon injury.
A painful memory to be sure, it’s not something O’Neill dwells on.
“That was definitely a gut shot,” O’Neill said recently. “Fortunately, we had a large team of people surrounding I’ll Have Another, we quickly huddled up and started reminiscing about the amazing journey I’ll Have Another had taken us on. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves we were just so proud of him and what he had gone through.”
Jack Sisterson, then an assistant to O’Neill, remembers O’Neill and Reddam met with the staff at the Belmont barn for a bit of a pep talk.
“They sat us down and said ‘If someone said you were going to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness but not the Belmont, I think we all would have said yes beforehand,’ ” Sisterson said. “From a trainer-coach standpoint you got to be able to manage the horses and staff at the same time. Credit to Doug, he’s good at both.”
In 2016, O’Neill was planning to run Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist in the Belmont. But a week after he was beaten in the Preakness, Nyquist spiked a temperature and the decision was made to skip the Belmont.
“He was screaming to us he wasn’t ready to come back,” O’Neill said. “When he popped a temp, we said ‘We’re not doing this.’ ”
O’Neill has run a horse in two of the three prior Belmont Stakes. But Blended Citizen (2018) and Fore Left (2020) were longshots who both finished ninth.
Saturday, O’Neill is back for another try at the Belmont. This time, however, he feels he has a legitimate contender in Hot Rod Charlie, who enters the race off a third-place finish behind Medina Spirit in the Kentucky Derby. Nine times between 2000 and 2017, the Belmont has been won by a horse that raced in the Derby and skipped the Preakness.
O’Neill said he, part-owners Bill Strauss and Greg Helm and their partners had talked before the Derby that if Hot Rod Charlie won the race they would wheel back in the Preakness. However, if Hot Rod Charlie lost, he would ship back to O’Neill’s stable in California to prepare for the Belmont.
“It didn’t take long after the race to revisit that, and we all were on the same page again about waiting the five weeks,” O’Neill said.
Hot Rod Charlie has worked three times since the Derby. Last Friday, Hot Rod Charlie worked a visually impressive five furlongs in 1:00.48, stalking his stakes-winning stablemate Liam’s Pride before drawing away and galloping out strong.
“It’s what he’s been doing recently,” O’Neill said. “I think early on in his career he was more comfortable as a pack horse running with the group, never got tired, but he kept hanging with the other horses. Recently, he’s very comfortable separating himself from other horses, and I think that’s a great trait that he’s added and is necessary to win big races. That’s what I saw the way he pulled away from his workmate.”
Hot Rod Charlie, a son of 2013 Preakness winner and Belmont runner-up Oxbow, lost his first three starts – two on turf – before winning a two-turn mile maiden race by a neck on Oct. 20 at Santa Anita.
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His connections took a shot by running him in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland and, at 94-1, he finished second, beaten just three-quarters of a length by Essential Quality.
“He validated our hopes that he belonged there,” O’Neill said.
O’Neill chose the Grade 3 Robert Lewis on Jan. 30 for Hot Rod Charlie’s 3-year-old debut, and he finished third, a neck behind Medina Spirit in a race that was tougher than O’Neill had thought.
“We thought it was going to be this easy little comeback race and here we are in a dogfight and he never gave up and never stopped,” O’Neill said.
O’Neill liked the spacing to the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby on March 20. Put on the lead a quarter-mile into the 1 3/16-mile race, Hot Rod Charlie won by two lengths.
“It wasn’t like he was shortening strides at the end there,” O’Neill said.
In the Kentucky Derby, with Flavien Prat aboard, Hot Rod Charlie found himself in a little traffic between horses coming under the wire the first time. It looked like it could get hairy, but Prat stayed calm and was able to settle him into fifth position.
“Typical Flavien, he never got all over the horse’s mouth, he didn’t exaggerate, he was able to navigate it without taking run out of the horse,” O’Neill said. “That’s another thing that is a plus with Hot Rod, he’s shown he can get a little adversity and still run through it.”
Hot Rod Charlie made a three-wide move turning for home and looked poised to reel in Medina Spirt, but couldn’t do it, holding off Essential Quality for third.
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Two days after the Derby, O’Neill received a commitment from agent Brad Pegram that Prat would ride Hot Rod Charlie back in the Belmont. O’Neill understandably got nervous when Prat won the Preakness on Rombauer, but Prat and Pegram stayed true to their word.
“After the way that horse ran in the Preakness I’m sure there had to be some second thoughts on their part, but he never let on with me,” O’Neill said. Pegram “called me shortly after the race and said we’re still good to go.”
O’Neill is effusive in his praise for Prat and the connection he has with Hot Rod Charlie, a horse whom he has only ridden twice, but has worked quite often.
“There’s nothing better than to have a strong horse and rider connection going into the big races, and I feel like we have that going into the Belmont,” O’Neill said.
Now, it’s just a matter of Hot Rod Charlie getting to Saturday without incident and getting to run, something I’ll Have Another didn’t get the chance to do.
“We’re coming in this time with a serious contender who’s fresh and ready,” O’Neill said.