O'Neill makes stakes plans for his 3-year-olds
California trainer Doug O’Neill plans to have runners in leading stakes for 3-year-olds throughout the nation in coming weeks and months, beginning with the upstart B Dawk in the $100,000 Sir Barton Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on May 21 at Pimlico.
B Dawk, owned by West Point Thoroughbreds and Joseph Besecker, won a maiden special weight race at about seven furlongs at Keeneland on April 24. The Sir Barton Stakes, part of the undercard of the Preakness program, will be B Dawk’s first start around two turns.
Later this month, O’Neill intends to start Win the Day in $300,000 Texas Derby at 1 1/16 miles at Lone Star Park on May 30, and Happy Jack in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Belmont Park on June 11.
Win the Day was fifth in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 9. Happy Jack, third in the Santa Anita Derby, was 14th in the Kentucky Derby last Saturday.
“He’s a real grinder and he’s got maturing to do,” O’Neill said of Happy Jack. “We’re hoping the mile and a half will do him good.”
The stakes winners Mackinnon and Slow Down Andy are nearing workouts after recent rests. They are expected to return to racing this summer.
Mackinnon “is a couple of weeks from working,” O’Neill said.
Mackinnon won two one-mile turf races for 2-year-olds last year and later was third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar. Slow Down Andy was sidelined with a virus in April detected after he won the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby on March 27.
O’Neill said Slow Down Andy will work in mid-May.
The stable sustained a setback when the multiple stakes winner Wildman Jack got sick was recently euthanized at a California veterinary clinic, O’Neill said. O’Neill said he was not aware of a specific cause of death, but that Wildman Jack had shown signs of distress before he was taken to the clinic.
“He went from unbelievably good to just a little dehydrated,” he said. “He wasn’t eating his dinner. The vet said he looked comfortable so we transported him.
“He didn’t make it through the night. It was the saddest thing I’ve been around in a long time.
“I don’t know how he slid so quickly. He galloped and had been training great. We were excited about his return.”
Owned by Glenn Sorgenstein, Wildman Jack, a 6-year-old gelding, won 5 of 15 starts and earned $634,505. He was a three-time stakes winner in California and Dubai, and finished fourth in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen Sprint in Dubai in March 2021 in what turned out to be his final start.
Wildman Jack was in training for a comeback when he was stricken.
- additional reporting by Jay Privman