All the O’Neills had gathered at the hospital in Honolulu in support of David. Doug and Dennis, his brothers, were in from California. David’s son, Patrick, Doug and Dennis’s nephew, arrived from Hong Kong, where he had an internship. David’s wife, daughters, all there, anxiously awaiting word. The doctor emerged from surgery, approached the waiting family. “It went well,” he said. Hearts began to soar, if only for a second. “He has another six months.” “We just sat there in stunned silence,” Patrick remembered. David made it two years before he could stave off the metastatic brain melanoma no more, willing himself, it seemed, to be around for Patrick’s graduation from Brown University. And then, on June 25, 2015, at age 57, he was gone, like his brother Danny, taken by melanoma 18 years earlier. The birth order of the O’Neill family of Dearborn, Mich., was David, Danny, Dennis, and Doug. And now, just as in their youth, when their two oldest brothers were already out of the house at the time their dad left the family, it was, again, Dennis and Doug. Among the pacts they made was to be there, physically and emotionally, for their relatives. Patrick, the nephew named for the family patriarch whose interest in racing had been both a blessing and curse to the O’Neill boys, says they were always there, when his father was ill, and after he was gone. “Doug and Dennis are like second fathers to me,” Patrick said. “We were already close, but what happened with my dad brought us closer. I owe them a lot.” Those family bonds now extend fully to racing, and to the sport’s highest goal. On Saturday at Churchill Downs, they will gather as Hot Rod Charlie – the colt Dennis bought, Doug trains, and in whom Patrick is a co-owner – tries to win the Kentucky Derby. It’s a family affair. “It’s kind of like, pinch me,” Patrick said. The brothers David, Danny, Dennis, and Doug were born between 1957 and 1968 to Patrick and Dixie O’Neill. Patrick loved the horses. All the boys did, too, at first. Trips to Detroit Race Course, and Hazel Park, for the races and even for morning workouts. The interest was keen. “I lived for the Triple Crown each year,” said Dennis, now 58. “We were huge, huge fans.” But there was a dark side to their father’s interest. Both Dennis, who saw it first hand, and nephew Patrick, the namesake who heard tales from his father, use the same word: “Degenerate.” The financial hardships impacted the older brothers as well. David became turned off by the sport, having seen the harm caused by his father’s gambling issues. Danny enjoyed being around horses, but in a farm setting, not the track where the gambling took place. They were out of high school, and thus out of the house, when the worst of their father’s misbehavior occurred. Their father left the family, moved to Florida. “Danny and Dave, they saw the excesses,” Doug said. :: Get Kentucky Derby Betting Strategies for exclusive wager recommendations, contender profiles, pedigree analysis, and more Dixie – struggling financially, relying on food stamps, trying to make ends meet while going to night school and working as a waitress – moved with her two youngest boys to the Thompson Tower Apartments, a housing project in Inkster, Mich., whose website says it has 300 residential units. Shown a weblink to the building, Dennis said, “That’s like seeing your jail cell 40 years later.” “We’d get dropped off after school on the border of Inkster and Dearborn because no one wanted to drive into Inkster,” Dennis said. “I got my ass kicked a couple of times.” He always looked after his younger brother. Doug was 8 when they moved into the housing project. “Dennis always has been like a second father to me,” said Doug, now 53. “Even though he’s only five years older, he was there when my dad wasn’t around. Dennis is a man of few words, but he always says the right thing. Even to this day, I’m lucky to have him, for sure.” After two years, their father, having relocated from Florida to California, attempted a rapprochement with their mother. Dixie agreed. She and her two youngest sons moved west, to Santa Monica, in 1979. “I had never been on a plane before, never been out of Michigan,” Dennis said. “I remember getting off the plane. It was 85 degrees. I said even if this doesn’t work out, I’m not going back to Inkster.” The passion for racing grew. Dennis, like Danny, went to work in the telecommunications business, but they bought a 10-acre plot of land in Temecula, Calif., and named it O’Neill Farm. “That had been our dream growing up,” Dennis said. “We’d board eight to 10 horses. We did turnouts, foaled mares.” They kept the farm until Danny took ill with melanoma. He was just 38 when he died in 1997. Dennis, by that time having met his now-wife, Tammy, sold the farm, moved closer to Santa Anita, became increasingly involved in bloodstock, and has been so successful he’s long now done it full time. Doug liked the racetrack action. Upon graduation from St. Monica High School, he went to work at the track, in the employ of several trainers, including as an assistant to Doug Peterson, before going out on his own. His first official runner was in 1988, his first winner in 1989. His first year with more than 10 winners was 1997. “I had no preconceived notions. I just wanted to pay the rent, make a car payment,” Doug said. “The expectations were low, the passion so high, that I could win the lowest race and still be happy because I was doing something I wanted to be a part of.” He’s gone on to win more than 2,500 races, including the Derby in 2012 with I’ll Have Another and 2016 with Nyquist, both purchased by Dennis for owners Paul and Zillah Reddam. Another of his stable stars was Lava Man, the popular gelding who won seven Grade 1 races and a spot in the Hall of Fame in 2015. “I’m extremely fortunate the way things have played out,” Doug said. His dad, who died in 2003, “had three older sons who did well for themselves in business, but because I was involved with the track I think he was proud of me more in some ways,” he said. Doug also has won five Breeders’ Cup races, the first with Stevie Wonderboy in the Juvenile in 2005. Two weeks after that milestone victory, Dennis was shaving one morning when he noticed a lump on his neck. He subsequently was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Through the efforts of owner B. Wayne Hughes, who long has given significant financial support to the University of Southern California, Dennis was fast-tracked to the office of Dr. Ann Mohrbacher, a renown blood-cancer specialist at the USC Norris Cancer Hospital. “She said, ‘We got it early, you’re going to beat this,’ ” Dennis said. “Six rounds of chemo. Kicked my ass. Now I get a shot every four months. She’s become a friend. We’ve named horses after her, like Dr. Ann.” Danny had died from melanoma. Now Dennis had cancer. And not long after that, David would be stricken, too. The nephew David had gone into business, becoming an executive with the telecommunications company MetroFIBER, but by the start of the millennium “he was sick of the corporate world,” Dennis said. With his wife, Margie – who grew up in Hawaii – his three daughters, and one son, David moved to Oahu in 2002. David and Margie had named their son – the first-born son of the four O’Neill brothers – after David’s father. The younger Patrick excelled in his studies, and, though separated by thousands of miles and an ocean from the nearest racetrack, became engrossed with racing. “My grandpa, who I was named after, was kind of a degenerate. Lost a couple of houses. So my dad was turned off by the sport,” said Patrick, now 28. “I think Doug and Dennis were too young to see the worst of it. But I started following it. I loved it. “I’d fly to California for the big races, like for Lava Man. My dad was against it, but Dennis and Doug would pay and look after me. I remember getting up in the middle of the night to watch Spring At Last win the Godolphin Mile,” he said of Doug’s win in that 2007 race, when Patrick was 14. “It was 2 a.m. in Hawaii when they ran that race. I was hooked.” Patrick went to the Derby for the first time in 2007, when Doug had his first starters, Great Hunter and Liquidity. He was at the 2007 Breeders’ Cup, when Doug’s mare Maryfield won the inaugural Filly and Mare Sprint at Monmouth Park. He poured that energy into his schooling, too. Patrick graduated from Punahou School – the same private school former President Barack Obama attended – as the class valedictorian. “Watching his speech gave me goosebumps,” Doug said of his nephew. “He’s a brilliant communicator.” :: Get DRF Clocker Reports for the Kentucky Derby and Oaks cards to access exclusive insights from morning training Patrick attended Brown University, the Ivy League school where he was a cornerback and kick returner on the football team. The summer after his sophomore year, he received an internship in Hong Kong. That’s where he was when he learned his father had the same disease as his late uncle. It was after brain surgery that summer when his father was given that bleak, six-month prognosis. “He made it two years. He was a tough SOB,” Patrick said. “It was powerful. I’m sure he’d never have admitted it to me, but I think he willed himself to see me graduate.” The commencement ceremony was May 24, 2015. David died 32 days later. “The doctors were flabbergasted he lived that long,” Dennis said. During those final two years at Brown, with Doug and Dennis flying to Providence, R.I., for some of his games, Patrick’s family grew to include many of his football teammates. He says they looked at his racing interest with curiosity. “I’d watch TVG on my phone in class when Doug’s races were on,” Patrick said. “I got in trouble in the film room once for watching the races. We lived together. We paid to get the TVG channel.” Upon graduation, Patrick initially got a job in New York, then moved to California, where he now works as the vice president of sales and strategic partnerships for Founder Sports Group, which makes performance athletic apparel. Four of his teammates – Eric Armagost, a safety; Dan Giovaccini, an inside linebacker and captain of the team his senior year; Reiley Higgins, a slot receiver; and Alex Quoyeser, a tight end – also got lucrative jobs upon graduation, and also had become more interested in racing. They implored Patrick to get them involved as owners. “I didn’t want to do it. I was afraid we’d lose friendships. I was the last to commit,” Patrick said. They named their ownership group Boat Racing, after the drinking game. “It’s a little cheeky,” Patrick said. “We wanted it to signify that you can work hard during the week, and have a couple of beers on the weekend.” The horse One day a few summers ago, Patrick and his friends from Brown attended the races at Del Mar. As luck would have it, Doug won a race that day, and they joined the celebration in the winner’s circle. “We had the time of our lives,” Patrick said. The die was cast. Yes, they would be horse owners. They’d partner with other clients of Dennis and Doug. Dennis would buy the horse, Doug would train. “Dennis bought us two,” Patrick said. “The first one was god-awful.” After two starts, he was shipped off to small tracks in the Midwest. “Nothing against Fonner Park, but the goal was not to be at Fonner Park after two races,” Patrick said. “That was the first horse we owned.” The second horse, Mr. Impossible, finished fourth in his debut at Del Mar in August 2019. Two weeks later, he was dropped into a maiden-claiming race and taken for $100,000. :: DRF's Kentucky Derby Headquarters: Contenders, latest news, past performances, analysis, and more “We hadn’t had a lot of success. We decided to give it one more shot,” Patrick said. That October, Dennis was scouting yearlings for the Fasig-Tipton October sale. He was intrigued by a colt by Oxbow, a half-brother to Mitole, who that June had won the Met Mile. The colt had been brought to his attention by Sean Feld, a native of California who is now the Kentucky-based managing director of Climax Stallions. Dennis bought the colt for a partnership for $110,000. “I told them to pretend he’s by Uncle Mo,” Dennis said. Greg Helm, who races as Roadrunner Racing, is the majority shareholder. Bill Strauss, who also was in on Mr. Impossible, took a share. And the Boat Racing quintet rolled over their Mr. Impossible money into a share, too. “We came up with a lot of stupid names for him,” Patrick said. “Fortunately, Greg said no.” He’s now known as Hot Rod Charlie. It took Hot Rod Charlie four starts to finally beat maidens, but then he jumped up and finished second last November in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, as a 94-1 shot, to Essential Quality. This year, Hot Rod Charlie was third in the Robert Lewis Stakes, then won the Louisiana Derby, and now he’ll have a rematch with Essential Quality – the acknowledged Derby favorite – Saturday at Churchill Downs. The Derby As the field turned into the stretch for the 2012 Kentucky Derby, Dennis remembers thinking I’ll Have Another would at least hit the board. Not a bad feat for a colt he had bought on behalf of the Reddams as a 2-year-old for just $35,000. But I’ll Have Another kept coming. Fourth at the quarter pole, second with a furlong to go, he moved past pacesetter Bodemeister and won the race by 1 1/2 lengths. “I remember trying to find Doug, and then jumping into his arms,” Dennis said. “I mean, you can’t write the story. Nobody would believe it. It was surreal. We were born into a family without a lot of money. My mom was on welfare. We lived in the projects in Inkster.” “It’s the pinnacle,” Doug said. “It’s like. ‘Oh my God, we won the Super Bowl.’ It’s fun to think back on now. At the time you can’t believe you’re a part of it.” Their brother David was there. Their nephew Patrick, too. “I knew Doug was a good horse trainer, but that was the most surreal moment of my life,” Patrick said. Four years later, Doug won the Derby for a second time, with Nyquist. He had been purchased by Dennis for the Reddams for $400,000 at a 2-year-old in training sale because earlier at that sale they had turned a significant profit by selling as a pinhook a colt by Eskendereya for $650,000. That horse, subsequently named Mor Spirit, went on to win the Met Mile. “There was more pressure with Nyquist, because he was the favorite,” Patrick said. “Paul Reddam was the most confident person in the world.” Patrick was there. But his father wasn’t. David had died the previous year. :: Bet horse racing on DRF Bets. Double Your First Deposit Up to $250. Join Now. “We all grew up together, a big Irish family. You’re supposed to die of old age,” Dennis said. “What’s sad about David is he didn’t follow up after what happened to Danny. It’s preventable. It’s treatable if caught early. But if not, you’re toast. “He’d be here if he was on top of his health. That’s why with this horse we’re going to try and stress people get checked for skin cancer. Going to the dermatologist is so important. I had four stitches in my shoulder the other day because they took out some stuff that was pre-cancerous. Doug and I have to stay on top of it.” What happened to their brother makes their nephew’s involvement in Hot Rod Charlie carry special meaning. “Patrick’s not just along for the journey, he’s part of it,” Doug said. “I couldn’t be more proud of Patrick. Watching what his dad went through with cancer, he could have said, ‘Screw it, woe is me.’ Or he could bear down and study and do well. That’s what he did. And now he’s buying horses with lifelong friends. “He’s a solid kid. Plus, he laughs at all of my jokes.” It’ll be a large entourage cheering on Hot Rod Charlie. Patrick said Boat Racing has secured seats for 160, friends and family. “It’s a logistical nightmare. Even if we win we might be in the red,” he said, laughing. The family circle even includes the horse who will accompany Hot Rod Charlie in the post parade. Lava Man, now 20, has been a stable pony for Doug since his retirement from racing more than a decade ago. It’s been a long journey for the O’Neills, one that’s gone from Inkster to Santa Monica, Hong Kong to Honolulu, Los Angeles to Louisville, encompassing moments of incredible joy and devastating heartache. Which is why at this Derby, as Doug said, “Win, lose, or draw, it’s a moment we’ll all cherish.”