O'Neill on verge of winning first Del Mar title since 2019
:quality(75))
DEL MAR, Calif. – Doug O’Neill gave his training colleagues a two-day head start at the current Del Mar meeting.
O’Neill was winless with nine runners on the first two days of the season, July 17-18, before rebounding to win four of the 11 races run July 19. He was one win away from equaling the track record of five wins he set on a Wednesday in July 2015.
“The first couple of days of the meet I liked the horses we were running and we didn’t win anything,” O’Neill recalled last weekend. “The third day of the meet was really strong.”
The stable has stayed strong the last six weeks. Through Sunday, a day in which O’Neill won three races, he leads the standings with 24 victories, 10 more than closest pursuer Phil D’Amato. O’Neill is on course to secure his sixth Del Mar summer training title on Monday’s closing day of the 32-day season. The title would be the first for O’Neill at Del Mar since 2019.
“We’ve had a lot of horses training well and we’ve landed in spots that were winnable,” O’Neill said. “We’ve had some good spots and good things have happened.”
O’Neill, 58, is quick to admit how training can be a cyclical game. The stable led the standings at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting from late December to early April, but had a modest spring meeting at Santa Anita, winning with 10 of 108 runners. He finished in a tie for fifth in the standings.
Last summer at Del Mar, O’Neill finished with eight wins from 119 runners, tying for 11th in the standings. He was winless with 19 starters in stakes.
“It’s a journey,” he said. “There are barns that I have a lot of respect for that are having slow meets. Del Mar is extremely tough.”
If there is one horse that epitomizes the summer of 2026 for O’Neill, the 4-year-old gelding Listenupshance is an easy nominee. Listenupshance was bought privately last year after winning a maiden race for $20,000 claimers. His career could have gone in any direction, but he has risen to the top of California’s sprinters.
Listenupshance won two claiming races last year. This year, Listenupshance has raced primarily in stakes. After a third-place finish in an allowance race on turf on May 2 at Santa Anita, Listenupshance was sent to Saratoga for the Grade 3 True North Stakes on June 6.
The 21-1 outsider of six, Listenupshance ran a career-best race to finish third, three-quarters of a length behind winner Book’em Danno, the 2025 champion male sprinter, and a nose behind Bentornato, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar last November.
Listenupshance was back at Del Mar in late July for the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes and again ran the best race of his career to win the track’s premier sprint by a nose. The victory gave LIstenupshance a fees-paid berth in the BC Sprint on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
Not bad for a cheap claimer.
“We should have been in a $10,000 claimer,” O’Neill said. “He’s absolutely found a lot of confidence. He’s risen to levels that we never dreamt of.”
Listenupshance, co-owned by the Great Friends Stable and Run Fast Racing partnerships, is booked to start in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Sept. 27.
Listenupshance is O’Neill’s lone stakes winner from 10 runners at Del Mar this summer through Sunday. O’Neill has stakes runners on Labor Day weekend, notably So There She Was in Saturday’s $100,000 Tranquility Lake Stakes and Phone Booth in Sunday’s Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity.
“We still have some chances,” O’Neill said of winning stakes. “It’s a beauty of this game. You can be slumping and one horse jumps up and now you’re back on it.”
O’Neill spends mornings watching training from a fifth-floor suite he shares with friends and clients. The room was full on a recent Saturday afternoon.
In past years, O’Neill watched workouts from the second-floor mezzanine, often visiting with passers-by.
“I think I did more socializing than training,” he said.
This summer, the routine starts in the stables before moving upstairs to supervise workouts.
“For years, there were so many distractions,” he said. “I’m able to focus.
“I start at the barn in the morning. I’m there about an hour, making sure everyone is eating up. If it’s a race day, I check the horses that are in that day.”
Through the morning, O’Neill is in near constant contact with assistant Leandro Mora, adjusting training plans. They have been a team for 26 years. Mora, 67, previously worked for Brian Mayberry and Tim Pinfield before joining O’Neill’s team.
Leandro “is so unbelievable,” O’Neill said. “People say our luckiest claim was Lava Man. I say our luckiest claim was Leandro Mora. He’s as good as it gets.”
Lava Man was O’Neill’s first nationally prominent runner, a $50,000 claim in 2024 who later won more than $5.1 million and seven Grade 1 races.
Lava Man was the prologue to greater success. O’Neill has won the Kentucky Derby twice with I’ll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist in 2016. Last year, O’Neill won his 3,000th race in North America.
:: Play to Win at Del Mar! Get DRF Past Performances, Expert Picks and Clocker Reports
The current O’Neill stable has approximately 95 active horses – 55 at Del Mar, 20 at Los Alamitos, and 20 in Kentucky. There is another group on the farm being rested or nearing the start of their careers.
O’Neill said he thrives on the activity of a major barn.
“I’ve got a lot of people that rely on me not to be a complete moron,” he said, displaying his wry sense of humor.
“I think being able to get up in the morning and have a lot of people that depend on you is what motivates me.”
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.