O'Neill has Saturday runners on two continents
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ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Doug O’Neill reaches worldwide on Saturday, with three runners on the Dubai World Cup program in the United Arab Emirates and starters at Santa Anita on the Santa Anita Derby program.
“It’s super cool,” O’Neill reflected on Sunday.
In Dubai, O’Neill will start Katonah and Mixto in the $12 million Dubai World Cup at 1 1/4 miles, and Raging Torrent in the Group 2 Godolphin Mile.
At Santa Anita, the list of runners will include the cleverly named No Bad Beats in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks, a $200,000 race at 1 1/16 miles.
No Bad Beats, who races for Kluga’s Two Dolla Coffee LLC, has won 2 of 5 starts but has never run beyond 6 1/2 furlongs. No Bad Beats won her fourth start in a Feb. 7 maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs restricted to 3-year-old fillies that were entered to be claimed for $62,500 or were sold or listed as bought back for $150,000 or less at auction.
No Bad Beats was sold as a yearling for $45,000.
On March 1, No Bad Beats won an allowance race at six furlongs by 1 3/4 lengths by disputing the pace throughout.
The Santa Anita Oaks is expected to have a small field. No Bad Beats is likely to be near the front, though closely followed by Silent Law and Tenma, two contenders trained by Bob Baffert.
Hector Berrios will ride No Bad Beats for the first time in the Santa Anita Oaks, entrusted with the job of coaxing the filly’s speed at a new distance.
“We’ve done a lot of good gallops,” O’Neill said. “You never know if they can maintain that stride. She’s acts like she wants to run two turns.”
No Bad Beats will be an outsider in a field expected to include Look Forward, Madame Secretary, Silent Law, Tenma and Vodka With a Twist.
Vodka With a Twist was second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar last November and has not raced since she finished a well-beaten third behind Tenma and Look Forward in the Grade 2 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos in December.
Trainer Phil D’Amato cautioned on Sunday that Vodka With a Twist could run in Friday’s Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Keeneland.
“I might stay here if it’s a five-horse field,” D’Amato said while standing trackside at Santa Anita.
The Santa Anita Oaks is one of five stakes races on Saturday’s program at Santa Anita, a day led by the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. The $500,000 Santa Anita Derby is run at 1 1/8 miles and is the West Coast’s leading prep for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 3.
The Santa Anita Derby will have a small field led by Citizen Bull, the champion 2-year-old male of 2024, and Journalism, a convincing winner of the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 1.
The other stakes are the Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes, a $100,000 race at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course, and two $125,000 stakes for California-bred 3-year-olds at 6 1/2 furlongs – the Evening Jewel Stakes for fillies and the Echo Eddie Stakes.
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