Reddam and O’Neill also teamed up to make headlines this year, as the duo behind Kentucky-bred I’ll Have Another, the grade I Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner who is the leading contender for the Eclipse Award as Champion Three-Year-Old Male. The son of Flower Alley had a chance to become racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner, but was scratched from the Belmont Stakes (grade I) with tendonitis the day before the race. I’ll Have Another, who also won the grade I, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, was retired with earnings of $2,693,600. Other horses who have thrust O’Neill into the limelight include group II Godolphin Mile winner Sprint At Last and Japan Cup Dirt winner Fleetstreet Dancer, as well as grade I winners Sharp Lisa, Great Hunter and Square Eddie, along with Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (grade I) hero Stevie Wonderboy and Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint heroine Maryfield. What does the future hold for the charismatic O’Neill? He is high on an Atticus half-brother to California Nectar named Star Rocker, who finished third in his debut at Del Mar on Sept. 3. “He’s a real talented sort,” O’Neill said of the Cal-bred. He also noted that there are several promising unraced juveniles still in the barn. Whatever success could be on the horizon for O’Neill, it will be achieved with the help of his team. And while he travels around winning some of the country’s biggest races, O’Neill will continue to boast about his home state. “I sing the praises of California all the time,” he said. “I’d love to see more connections come out this way to race. If they did, the majority would want to stay.”
Mistical Plan Grade I, $400,000 Princess Rooney Handicap—July 12, 2008
©Benoit
©Jim Lisa
the second time in 2009, he had earned $5,268,706 with 17 wins, eight seconds and five thirds in 47 starts. O’Neill claimed Lava Man for $50,000 on Aug. 13, 2004, and the big gelding surprised with a 10-1 upset in the $58,800 Derby Trial Stakes at Fairplex Park next out. Over the next three years, Lava Man won the grade I Hollywood Gold Cup three times, the grade I Santa Anita Handicap twice and the grade I Pacific Classic at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. He won grade I events on dirt, turf and all-weather, but was unsuccessful in road attempts to the Jockey Club Gold Cup in New York, the Breeders’ Cup Classic in Kentucky, and the Japan Cup Dirt and Dubai Duty Free. Although Lava Man is retired now, he is still part of the team, working as a stable pony in his old barn. Fans still visit the son of Slew City Slew every week. More recently, young Cal-breds have become O’Neill’s forté. Notional made noise on the 2007 Triple Crown Trail, when he won Santa Anita Park’s San Rafael Stakes (grade II) and the Risen Star Stakes (grade III) at the Fair Grounds, before finishing second in Gulfstream Park’s Florida Derby (grade I). Thirtyfirststreet won the $100,000 California Breeders’ Champion Stakes in 2010, and the $200,000 Lone Star Derby in Texas the following spring, while the filly California Nectar won Santa Anita’s Santa Ynez Stakes (grade II) in 2011. She wasn’t the only Cal-bred filly whom O’Neill has guided to a stakes win; he also trained Mistical Plan, a daughter of Game Plan owned by Paul Reddam. This filly won the $250,000 Sunshine Millions Oaks and the grade II, $396,000 Fair Grounds Oaks en route to a fifth place finish in the Kentucky Oaks. She returned as a four-year-old in 2008, to win the grade I, $400,000 Princess Rooney Handicap at Calder Race Course.
Sky Jack—Grade I, $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup—July 14, 2002
©Reed Palmer
Thor’s Echo—Grade I, $1,951,080 TVG Breeders’ Cup Sprint—November 4, 2006
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