E J Won the Cup provides emotional roller coaster for O'Neill with Texas Derby win

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Trainer Doug O’Neill experienced a variety of emotions throughout the running of the $300,000 Texas Derby on Monday at Lone Star Park, and was only able to breath easily in deep stretch as trainee E J Won the Cup secured a length victory over Dimatic. It was another six lengths back in third to Real Men Violin.

The Texas Derby was one of six stakes on the annual Lone Star Million Day card. The races were worth $1.2 million.

E J Won the Cup ($6) settled in third along the rail in the early stages of the 1 1/16-mile race as Lucky Jeremy and The Donegal Clan dueled through fractions of 24.14 seconds for the opening quarter and 48.12 for the half-mile. E J Won the Cup was then overtaken by some of his rivals down the backside and had two horses beat into the final turn. The eventual winner kicked into gear again, while continuing to race along the rail, was angled out four wide into the stretch by jockey Mike Smith, and dug in to get past new leader Dimatic.

“The race did not unfold like anything we had hoped – credit to Mike, his experience and his confidence in this colt,” O’Neill said of securing the win. “I literally went from brimming with confidence going into the gate, to ‘Hey, we’ll get them next time,’ mid-race, to ‘Oh my gosh,’ inside the sixteenth pole.”

Smith said he was relieved to get the position he did into the stretch with E J Won the Cup, who broke from post 2.

“You just got to really reach down deep and be patient,” Smith said in an interview conducted by Lone Star. “There was a bit of a middle move and I wasn’t able to kind of move with them and I was going to have to kind of put him in a long, long drive and I thought, ‘You know what, just have confidence in him.’ I just needed to find him a place to run when it was time and I was fortunate to get to the outside and once I did that, he won pretty well in hand.”

E J Won the Cup covered the distance on a fast track in 1:44.22. He became the fourth next-out winner to emerge from the Santa Anita Derby, a race he finished third in ahead of the Texas Derby.

Curlin’s Kaos, who was fourth in the Santa Anita Derby, came back to win a first-level allowance at Santa Anita, Tapalo, who was fifth, returned to take the Laz Barrera at Santa Anita, and McVay, who was seventh, accounted for a maiden special weight, also at Santa Anita.

O’Neill said E J Won the Cup will head back to Santa Anita in a few days, with future plans to be determined. The son of Omaha Beach is named for Stanley Cup winner Erik Johnson, according to O’Neill.

E J Won the Cup has now won 3 of 10 starts and won his second stakes behind the Turf Paradise Derby.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.