San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Hot Rod Charlie was born to run
Thoroughbred trainer Doug O’neill paused to shape the proper perspective about what it would mean for Del Mar owner Bill Strauss to win a Triple Crown race.
Thrilling? Exhilarating? Strip down and streak through “The Quad,” Will Ferrell style in “Old School”? Nope. Not quite right.
“Win? Especially in his home state of New York? There’s no telling,” O’neill said of that potential volcanic eruption. “He’s a huge (Bruce) Springsteen fan. Whatever he would feel with a front-row seat to a Springsteen concert, multiply that by 10.”
O’neill guides Hot Rod Charlie, who finished third at the Kentucky
Derby on May 1. Strauss, who cofounded the multi-million-dollar company Pro Flowers with current Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, holds the single biggest stake among the horse’s eclectic mix of owners that includes five 20-something former football players from Brown University.
The Derby, a 20-horse free for all where Charlie finished a mere length off the winner in third, built confidence. The longer Belmont Stakes, set for June 5 at Belmont Park, stokes even more.
Springsteen might tune up that guitar, just in case.
“Oh, man,” said Strauss, a Syracuse grad, when asked to consider the possibility of a trip to the winner’s circle a short taxi ride from JFK International Airport. “To win a ‘classic’ would be the icing on the cake. That would be unbelievable.”
Except, well, it would not be unbelievable. Hot Rod Charlie stands as the second betting choice in the Belmont behind Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and $2.4-million earner Essential Quality. That puts him in front of Preakness winner Rombauer.
That’s far more than a puncher’s chance.
Surviving and thriving in the wild and chaotic traffic of a Derby is one thing. This Belmont will place eight fewer horses in the gate and, at a mile and a half, there’s more time and space to recover from any early trouble.
“We think the distance is perfect,” said Strauss, who watched Charlie’s final workout Friday at Santa Anita. “He’s got good cruising speed, good tactical speed. The way he trains, the way he races, he doesn’t get tired. “He can run all day long.” As Strauss and O’neill walked off
the track at Churchill Downs as the Derby dust settled, the pair smiled. They knew how close Charlie came to becoming part of Derby lore, despite a nudgeand-veer moment out of the gate with Midnight Bourbon.
The improving-by-thestride horse, who needed four races to notch a win, fought through traffic. He stayed patient and maintained pace. He refused to shrivel down the stretch. He held off hard-charging Essential Quality on the outside.
Charlie ran out of racetrack before he emptied the gas tank.
“The longer he can go, the better,” Strauss said. O'neill agreed.
“If a horse hyperventilates a little bit (at the pressure or distance), a mile and a half doesn't work,” he said. “Fit and ready? He checks that box. Do you have a horse that likes to travel? Yep, he checks that. Then the continuity of having ( jockey Flavien) Prat, who's crushing in California, it's great having him back.
“Charlie's got a big chance.”
The horse has handled moving from big race to big race by diving into the work like a rock-and-roll roadie. In the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Keeneland, Charlie shattered rock-bottom expectations by finished second (three-quarters of a length) at 94-1 odds. That field also included Rombauer.
Charlie won the Derbycinching Louisiana Derby, then flirting with doing the same at the Derby itself.
“Even with a little adversity early in the race, he just never stopped trying,” O'neill said of the Derby run. “He ran a winning race. He just didn't have the perfect trip.”
Derby intrigue remains. The win by Medina Spirit remains on unsteady footing after the horse tested positive for a banned race-day substance. As Kentucky's governing body and lawyers continue to sort all of it out, it has the potential to move Hot Rod Charlie up a spot.
If the victory is erased, the team's purse money would double to $600,000 and elevate Charlie's bigpicture standing — and breeding income, potentially — by becoming a runner-up in the sport's biggest race.
Strauss, for his part, has little interest in joining the drama.
“I'd prefer none of this ever happened,” he said. “We certainly wouldn't turn down the money, but the way it unfolded, I'd rather not be in this position to be honest.”
They learned a Springsteen-like lesson that day, though.
That horse, baby, he was born to run.
bryce.miller@sduniontribune.com