The positives have far outweighed the negatives during the first two weeks of Del Mar’s 80th summer meet, highlighted by the exploits of trainers Doug O’Neill and John Sadler.O’Neill’s the only trainer to win five races in one afternoon at the seaside track, and he’s done it twice after turning the trick again Wednesday afternoon. Perhaps most impressive is the fact that none of the five winners were favorites.
O’Neill found the winner’s circle with So Gucci ($49.20) in the first, Oil Can Knight ($24.60) in the third, Vegan ($15.80) in the fourth, Convince ($15.40) in the fifth and Ocean Fury ($6.20) in the nightcap.
“That was incredible,” O’Neill said by telephone Thursday morning. “Everything just kinda fell into line. It was just the result of a lot of great hard work by a lot of amazing horsemen that I’m blessed to be around every day.
“I thought we had a chance to win one or two, but I never thought of winning five. You look at some of the amazing rides that we got, from Evin Roman in the first race, which was an incredible ride, to (Rafael) Bejarano (fifth race) in the outside post going two turns on the turf with the rails out. He took it to ’em early and kept on going.”
The 51-year-old O’Neill started the meet sixth on the all-time trainers list at Del Mar with 352 victories and is now just 13 shy of Farrell Jones for fifth. The only four who would be ahead of O’Neill after he catches Jones? Bob Baffert (505), Mike Mitchell (476), Sadler (464) and Ron McAnally (445).
“It gives me goose bumps, but it also just reminds me of the amount of team work, the men and women that I’ve been blessed to have alongside, to work alongside with for years, and all their amazing horsemanship to get where we are and hopefully keep going,” O’Neill said.
Young horses the likes of Defense Wins will maybe keep things going for O’Neill. Owned in partnership by former college basketball coach Rick Pitino, the 2-year-old colt finished second, beaten only a half-length, in his debut July 21 at Del Mar.
“I think he’s just going to get better and better,” O’Neill said. “I think he’s got a really bright future. We’ve got some unraced 2-year-olds that we’re excited about, too, but we’ll wait until they debut before we jinx ’em.
But Defense Wins has already been out there, and he showed he’s special.”
Special is also a word O’Neill uses to describe longtime assistant Leandro Mora.
“It’s hard to explain. He is absolutely priceless,” he said. “And along with Leandro, we’ve got about four or five other assistants that are priceless as well. Amazing team that we’ve been able to assemble, keep continuity. We’ve been together for a long time, so if somebody’s sick or if somebody’s on vacation, there’s others to pick up and continue on with the horsemanship that we do.
“They don’t get enough credit, that’s for darn sure. It’s because of them that the results are good.”
For Sadler, he’d won five of Del Mar’s 13 stakes races through the first 10 days to move his career total to 72 – fourth on the track’s all-time list behind only Baffert (128), McAnally (77) and Charlie Whittingham (74).
Of course, Sadler has a couple of the nation’s top older horses in training this year in Gift Box, winner of the Santa Anita Handicap in April, and Catalina Cruiser, who used a victory in the San Diego Handicap on July 20 as a prep for a possible start in the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 17.
Horse fatality
Del Mar was hit by misfortune the morning of July 18 when a freak accident involving a loose horse resulted in a head-on collision that killed two unraced horses – Charge A Bunch and Carson Valley. Then Monday morning, the Baffert-trained Bowl of Soul, a 3-year-old filly, injured her right hind fetlock during a workout and had to be euthanized.
Del Mar has been one of the safest tracks in the country the past two years after a nightmarish 2016 summer meet that saw 17 horses die. In 2017, track superintendent Dennis Moore was brought in and the number of fatalities dropped to six, including one non-racing death (heart attack).
Heading into Thursday’s seven-race card, there had been no fatalities in 89 races during Del Mar’s first 11 days.
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