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Nyquist, with Mario Gutierrez up, wins the Del Mar Futurity to complete a Grade 1 double on the same afternoon for trainer Doug O’Neill
Trainer of the Quarter
DOUG O’NEILL
The TRM Trainer of the Quarter award has been won by Doug O’Neill. O’Neill and his team will receive a selection of products from the internationally-acclaimed range of TRM supplements, as well as a bottle of fine Irish whiskey. WORDS: BILL HELLER PHOTOS: HORSEPHOTOS
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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 38
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HILE winning any Grade 1 stakes is a thrill for a trainer, winning a Grade 1 with a two-year-old is intoxicating, because that precocious Thoroughbred has the rest of his career to win another. Winning two of them on the same afternoon three hours and 2,500 miles apart is historic, and yet that’s exactly what Doug O’Neill did September 7th with Ralis and undefeated Nyquist, both owned by the Reddam Racing entity of J. Paul Reddam. Ralis, a son of Reddam’s Square Eddie out of a daughter of Reddam’s Ten Most Wanted, won the $350,000 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga three hours before Nyquist captured the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity. “It was really thrilling,” O’Neill said. “I was there watching the Hopeful on TV with Paul at his suite in Del Mar. My brother Dennis was there. My son was there. Did we expect to win the Hopeful? Absolutely not. Did we think he’d hit the board? Definitely. “After they broke, we were all going nuts. He was in such a good position to win.” He did win, easily. “We were just blown away to win a race like the Hopeful with a homebred,” O’Neill said. “It’s a hard feeling to explain.” Not only is Ralis a homebred, but his sire Square Eddie, dam Silar Rules, and broodmare sire Ten Most Wanted raced