O'Neill has Hot Rod Charlie set to run in Whitney Stakes
Hot Rod Charlie, fifth in the latest Breeders' Cup Classic rankings, will run in the $1 million Grade I Whitney Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 6 and perhaps have one more prep before the $6 million Classic on Nov. 5 at Keeneland, according to trainer Doug O'Neill.
“He's at Keeneland training,” O'Neill said Thursday during a phone interview while in Colorado on a college tour with his daughter. “We're using Keeneland as our home base there, leading up to the Whitney.”
O'Neill said a possible race between the Whitney and Breeders' Cup hasn't been discussed yet.
“We haven't really gotten past the Whitney,” he said.
O'Neill said the decision to run in the Whitney, rather than the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Sept. 3, had nothing to do with the timing of the two races.
“We didn't want to go back and forth was the reasoning,” he said. “Just trying to keep him in the Midwest or East Coast through the Breeders' Cup.”
Hot Rod Charlie, a 4-year-old son of Oxbow who's earned more than $5 million by winning four of 16 races — he won the 2021 Haskell Stakes but was DQ'd — has finished in the top three in 12 of his starts. He's lost to some talented horses, including Country Grammer, Mind Control, Express Train, Knicks Go and Essential Quality.
It can be frustrating for a horse's connections to fire their best shot and still come up second or third best.
“It's more disappointing from a financial standpoint,” O'Neill said. “We've just been so extra proud of him every time he runs, especially the horses he's been running against.”
O'Neill won't be at Los Alamitos on Saturday when two of his 3-year-olds, Slow Down Andy and Win the Day, run in the $125,000 Los Alamitos Derby. He's not returning from Colorado until Sunday, but when he arrives home he might have a record setter in his barn. With a victory Saturday, Slow Down Andy would become the first horse to win the Los Alamitos Futurity and Los Al Derby.
“That would be a really cool thing,” O'Neill said. “Especially Paul and Zillah Reddam (Slow Down Andy's owners), they've got so much skin in the game and they love the sport. And here's a son of Nyquist out of a daughter of Square Eddie, so it's just a true homebred. I know Doctor Allred (Los Alamitos owner) and Paul Reddam have been longtime friends, so it would be really cool to do that.”
O'Neill said Slow Down Andy, who goes into the Los Al Derby off a three-plus-month layoff after winning the Grade III Sunland Derby in New Mexico on March 27, has matured quite a bit after his antics while winning the Futurity in December. He was all over the track through the stretch while upsetting the highly regarded Messier that day.
“I think that's straightened out,” he said. “The stretch at Los Al being so long, immature horses can kinda shift around a little bit. We're expecting a straighter course and hopefully a winning race like he did in the Futurity.”
Slow Down Andy's camp was hoping to run their colt in the Kentucky Derby after his victory in the Sunland Derby, but he came down with an illness and had to miss some training, forcing him off the Triple Crown trail.
“We vanned him over to Keeneland (after his victory) and when he got to Keeneland he was just dehydrated and sick,” O'Neill said. “It took about three or four weeks to really get him back feeling well. Once he was back and 100 percent, we shipped him back to California and he's been in steady training since.”
A short field of five was entered Wednesday for the Los Al Derby, which will be run for the ninth time. Post time is 2 p.m. Saturday and the Derby is scheduled as the ninth race with a probable post time of 5:58 p.m.
The field will line up this way: Win the Day, Diego Herrera; Got Thunder, Ramon Vazquez; Slow Down Andy, Mario Gutierrez; Doppelganger, Abel Cedillo; and High Connection, Juan Hernandez.
The latter two colts have been transferred back to the Bob Baffert barn as he returns from his recent 90-day suspension.
Seattle center Tina Charles, right, controls the ball against Sparks forward Katie Lou Samuelson during the first half of Thursday night's game at Crypto.com Arena.