- O’NEILL HAS TWO FOR SANTA ANITA DERBY MONEY
- YAKTEEN PLEASED WITH DERBY & OAKS DRILLS
- BUSY WEEKEND LOOMS FOR TOP TRAINER D’AMATO
- ALMOST 200 WORKERS AT SANTA ANITA SATURDAY
O’NEILL EYES 3RD RUNHAPPY SANTA ANITA DERBY WIN
Doug O’Neill, who won the Runhappy Santa Anita Derby with Goldencents in 2013 and eventual Kentucky Derby winner I’ll Have Another in 2012, pursues another this Saturday in the West Coast’s major steppingstone to the May 7 Kentucky Derby with Happy Jack and Win the Day.
Working in company, Happy Jack and Win the Day each went six furlongs Saturday in identical times of 1:14.20, while O’Neill’s Santa Anita Oaks nominee Awake at Midnyte went the same distance in a bullet 1:12.20.
Happy Jack, like O’Neill’s stable star Hot Rod Charlie a son of Oxbow, was third by 10 ½ lengths to Santa Anita Derby-bound Forbidden Kingdom last out in the San Felipe Stakes March 5, while Win the Day, a son of Midshipman, is coming off an impressive 5 ½-length maiden victory at one mile on March 6.
“Happy Jack is doing really well,” said O’Neill, who will have Abel Cedillo aboard the bay colt owned and bred by Calumet Farm for the fourth consecutive race.
“Win the Day had a nice maiden win going two turns on the main track here, so we’re hoping he moves forward a little bit. He’s got a big chance. Obviously, it’s going to be a tough race but we’ve got two live ones.”
Umberto Rispoli, who was aboard Win the Day for his maiden victory, retains the mount.
First post time on Santa Anita Derby is 12 noon.
Meanwhile, Hot Rod Charlie, who ran a game second to Bob Baffert trainee Country Grammer in the $12 million Dubai World Cup last Saturday, is in the process of returning to Santa Anita.
“He’s been in quarantine in Kentucky,” said O’Neill, who is nominated for Hall of Fame induction this year. “He’s flying today and he’ll be in our barn here at Santa Anita tonight.”
The $750,000 Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles will be run for the 85th time. It offers the winner 100 qualifying points to the Kentucky Derby, 40 to the runner-up, 20 to the third-place finisher and 10 to the fourth.
STAKES DRILLS ARE JUST WHAT YAKTEEN WAS LOOKING FOR
Recent acquisitions Messier and Adare Manor had their final major workouts today for the Runhappy Santa Anita Derby and the Grade II Santa Anita Oaks, after which trainer Tim Yakteen said the drills were “just what I was looking for.”
Messier, 15-length winner of the Grade III Robert B. Lewis Stakes, went five furlongs in 1:00.60, while Grade III Las Virgenes winner Adare Manor went five furlongs in 1:00.20. Winner of her last two starts by a combined 25 lengths, the daughter of Uncle Mo runs in the $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks at 1 1/16 miles.
“The works were just what I was looking for,” said Yakteen, who has John Velazquez booked to ride both horses.
LEADING TRAINER D’AMATO A MAN ON THE GO
With 15 nominations next weekend, Phil D’Amato could be a man on the go.
Santa Anita’s leading trainer with 30 victories has none nominated to Saturday’s Grade I Runhappy Santa Anita Derby, but has two fillies nominated to the Grade II Santa Anita Oaks, Ain’t Easy and Desert Dawn.
It continues from there with three nominees in Saturday’s Grade II Royal Heroine Stakes, two in the Grade II Monrovia, three in the Grade III Providencia and two in the $150,000 Evening Jewel for California-bred three-year-old fillies.
Next Sunday D’Amato has three nominated to the $75,000 Siren Lure Stakes at 6 ½ furlongs on turf.
D’Amato already has started 147 horses this meet, second only to Doug O’Neill’s 164.
The Siren Lure is named for the bay gelding claimed for $50,000 by Art Sherman who would win 15 of 38 starts in his career including the Grade I Triple Bend Handicap under Alex Solis at Hollywood Park on July 2, 2006.
Siren Lure ran in the Triple Bend two more times but could do no better than fourth.
Jockeys who rode Siren Lure foreshadow a trip down memory lane, as among them were Tyler Baze, Jon Court, Russell Baze, Victor Espinoza, Rene Douglas, Richard Migliore and Corey Nakatani.
FESTIVE SPRING CARNIVAL TODAY UNTIL APRIL 17
While the Grade I Runhappy Santa Anita Derby will be the centerpiece of a seven-stakes racing bonanza April 9, five of them graded, attending fans can avail themselves of a myriad of other activities at Santa Anita’s annual Spring Carnival all weekends starting today through April 17.
It includes a Winner’s Circle BBQ Championship (today and tomorrow), a Ferris Wheel, Zipper, Train Ride and much more, namely carnival games and snacks, and the San Gabriel Valley’s largest Easter Egg Hunt on April 17.
For additional Spring Carnival information, please visit santaanita.com or call 626 574-RACE.
FINISH LINES: Veteran race caller Alan Buchdahl, who filled in very capably for Track Announcer Frank Mirahmadi on Friday, will remain in the announcer’s booth through Sunday. Mirahmadi, who is under the weather with flu-like symptoms, will return at full-force on Friday, April 8…In a perhaps unprecedented racing rarity, Doug O’Neill has horses entered in all nine races today. With two entrants in races seven and nine, O’Neill will saddle a total of 11 horses on the day… Among Saturday’s 196 recorded workouts was a four-furlong breeze by Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint champion Ce Ce, who went in 48 seconds flat for trainer Michael McCarthy . . . Congrats to owner/breeder Nick Alexander on winning two races with trainer Steve Miyadi Friday, the fourth captured by Mo Connolly and the eighth by Rose Maddox. A three-year-old filly, Mo Connolly is named for tennis legend Maureen Connolly who won nine major tournaments in the early 1950s and was the first woman to win a Grand Slam. The 5′-5″ dynamo died at 34 in 1969. The three-year-old filly Rose Maddox is named for Roselea Albana “Rose” Maddox, an American country singer-songwriter and fiddle player who was lead singer for the Maddox Brothers before a successful solo career. She died at 72 in 1998. Alexander names many of his horses for former Major League baseball stars. Once asked how Alexander divvies up his horses between leading trainer Phil D’Amato and him, Miyadi quipped, “D’Amato gets all the Major Leaguers, I get all the minor leaguers.”
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WORKOUTS:
Queen of Pompeii (Outside) and Team Concept (Gaines) 4-1-22
Quick Finish (Blacker) 4-1-22
Doitforandrew (D’Amato) 4-1-22
Bob and Jackie (Baltas) 4-1-22
Forbidden Kingdom (Mandella) 3-31-22
Spielberg (Outside) and Eight Rings (Baffert) 3-31-22
Liberal (Mullhall) 3-31-22
As Luck Happens (Gaines) 3-30-22
Fast Enough (Yakteen) 3-30-22
Soy Tapatio (O’Neill) 3-27-22
Ce Ce (McCarthy) 3-26-22
Gold Dragon Queen (Baltas) 3-26-22
