O'Neill seeks second title of the summer
CYPRESS, Calif. – Trainer Doug O’Neill needed 27 winners to secure the championship at the 38-day spring-summer meeting that ended last weekend at Santa Anita. If O’Neill cracks double digits in wins at the current Los Alamitos summer meeting, he might earn consecutive titles.
The summer meeting began Thursday and has two four-day weeks through July 13. With so few racing dates, a trainer will not need many winners to be prominent in the standings.
O’Neill has two runners Friday – Three Point Luke in the fourth race for maiden claimers and Handsome Mike in the $75,000 American Flag Stakes, the seventh race.
On Saturday, O’Neill has two starters in the $500,000 Los Alamitos Derby – Eddie’s First and Friendswith K Mill – outsiders in the race over 1 1/8 miles. They are part of a projected field of seven, led by Shared Belief, the champion 2-year-old male of 2013, and the stakes winners Can the Man, Candy Boy, Tonito M., and Top Fortitude.
O’Neill said he has no hesitation to try the race.
“It’s worth $500,000, and it’s in our backyard,” he said.
Eddie’s First set a course record of 1:10.73 for about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course May 11 at Santa Anita and was a troubled sixth June 8 in the Silky Sullivan Stakes at Golden Gate Fields, racing in traffic in the stretch under jockey Mario Gutierrez.
“He was loaded, and Mario said he thought he would win,” he said. “The hole just shut down on him. He ran a brilliant race for us down the hill.”
Friendswith K Mill was second behind Can the Man in the Grade 3 Affirmed Stakes at Santa Anita on June 7, his best finish in three stakes.
“We think he’ll be flying down the lane,” O’Neill said.
O’Neill said he plans to be active throughout the Los Alamitos meeting.
“We’re looking at it as another point on the map of Southern California racing,” O’Neill said. “We’re not skipping it. If they’re ready to run, they’ll run. If not, they’ll wait for Del Mar.”
At the same time, O’Neill said some horses are better suited to racing on the synthetic track at Del Mar rather than the dirt at Los Alamitos.
“If you’ve got an obvious synthetic or turf horse, you have to wait,” he said.