O’Neill’s bounty includes stakes-caliber filly Land Over Sea

DEL MAR, Calif. – The postscript to a record five-win day by trainer Doug O’Neill at Del Mar on Wednesday may be the long-term potential of one of the winners. The stable considers the 2-year-old filly Land Over Sea to be the sort of runner capable of starting in a Breeders’ Cup race at Keeneland on Oct. 30-31.

On Wednesday, Land Over Sea won her second career start in a one-mile maiden race on turf, the day’s fifth race. She is likely to run in a stakes at the end of this summer meeting, with races such as the $300,000 Del Mar Debutante at seven furlongs Sept. 5 or the $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf at a mile Sept. 7 as the main options.

“She wants distance,” O’Neill said on Thursday.

Land Over Sea, by Bellamy Road, is owned by Paul and Zillah Reddam, who had three wins Wednesday. They won the second race with Mr. Zippers ($32.60), who is trained by Ed Freeman, and own two of O’Neill’s winners – Jimmy Bouncer ($8.60), who won the third race, and Land Over Sea.

O’Neill, 47, also won the fourth race with the 2-year-old maiden claimer Tumbleweedprincess. When Land Over Sea won, O’Neill had equaled the record for the most wins in a day at Del Mar shared by five trainers – Red McDaniel, who won four races on two occasions in 1954, Farrell Jones (1963), Ron McAnally (1989), Jack Van Berg (1995), and John Sadler (2009).

The record-breaking win occurred in the seventh race with Lookin for Money ($10.80), who won a $40,000 claimer for 3-year-old fillies on turf. O’Neill also was second in that race with Housemaker.

O’Neill, who has won four training titles at Del Mar summer meetings, has won seven races at the current meeting. Through Wednesday, he was first in the standings with one more win than Peter Miller and Jerry Hollendorfer.

“It’s hard to win one race down here, let alone what happened today,” he said. “They all got great trips. It’s been a perfect day.”

O’Neill said that after Hye I’m Jack won, he thought he could have a multiple-win day.

“We felt pretty good,” O’Neill said. “I thought our weakest race was the first race. At that point, we thought it could be a three- or four-win day.”

Prior to Wednesday, O’Neill’s personal best was four wins on seven occasions from 2004 through last September. In that span, he won four races at a single track on three occasions, and he won four races in a day at two tracks four times.

On March 3, 2007, O’Neill won four races at Santa Anita, including the Santa Anita Handicap with Lava Man and the Robert B. Lewis Stakes with Great Hunter.