NEWS
Road to the Triple Crown: O’Neill hopes he has ‘Another’ Derby horse
Posted: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 6:51 PM
I'LL HAVE ANOTHER WINS ROBERT B. LEWIS STAKES
Benoit & Associates photo
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by Steve Bailey
If trainer Doug O’Neill had had his way, I’ll Have Another would have made his first start in five months in an allowance race.
Instead, he may have a horse for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum Brands (G1) after J. Paul Reddam’s chestnut Flower Alley colt captured the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G2) on Saturday at Santa Anita Park at odds of 43.30-to-1.
It was Reddam that, when he heard O’Neill and his brother Dennis talking about the allowance race, let them know that their sights were not set nearly high enough.
“He’d had a slight injury in his previous race in September, and we just thought that we’d take the conservative route and maybe get him in a one-turn race to try to ease him back into things,” O’Neill said. “Paul wanted none of that. He reminded us how special we thought this colt was and that if we had any real thoughts of the first Saturday in May, we’d better toss him into the deep end to see if he could swim.”
Instead of the low-profile allowance race, I’ll Have Another was entered in the 1 1/16-mile Robert B. Lewis Stakes—an early but important West Coast prep for the 1¼-mile Kentucky Derby—and swim he did.
I’ll Have Another, who had not started since finishing sixth of ten in the Three Chimneys Hopeful Stakes (G1) on September 5 at Saratoga Race Course, tracked pacesetter Isn’t He Clever from second through six furlongs under jockey Mario Gutierrez before storming past that opponent nearing the stretch to take command en route to a 2 ¾-length victory that paid $88.60 for a $2 win bet.
“Awesome is the only way to describe it,” O’Neill said with a chuckle. “We’ve always been high on this colt, but I’d be lying if I said we thought he was going to come back after five months in his first start at two turns and run like that.
“Realistically, we wanted to see a real-solid effort and for him to be competitive. If he could hit the board, we’d have something to build upon. He hit the board all right, and [Reddam] deserves a lot of the credit for that.”
The O’Neills and Reddam, a one-time college professor who founded the quick-loan company CashCall Inc., had several reasons to be high on I’ll Have Another early in his development as he won his career debut by 1¾ lengths in July at Hollywood Park and then finished second to highly regarded Creative Cause in the Best Pal Stakes (G2) in August at Del Mar.
They decided to throw out the result of the Hopeful when he came back with the injury and, with Reddam’s input, put him on a probable path toward Churchill Downs.
“Paul is just ultra-competitive, and he likes to play at the top end of the game whenever possible,” O’Neill said. “He works his butt off every day and likes to be aggressive when he can be, and this time it could not have worked out any better. He has put so much money and enthusiasm into the game and is just so great for the sport.”
O’Neill said he has been impressed with the way I’ll Have Another has matured in such a short period of time.
“He’s got a good body and an even better mind,” O’Neill said. “He’s got a long, fluid stride—as trainers, we’re not always blessed to have many of those—with good acceleration. And he’s built like a two-turn horse, which always helps with horses this young.
“He handled everything so beautifully [in the Robert B. Lewis]. It was a big crowd and a pretty festive atmosphere—a really good environment for racing—and he didn’t turn a hair in the paddock or in the [starting] gate. He was as professional and composed as he could be.”
O’Neill said I’ll Have Another probably will make one more start in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) on April 7 before a final decision is made on the Kentucky Derby.
“He came out in great shape, knock on wood, and he handled himself so well that we just don’t think there’s any need for multiple races,” he said. “We think he’ll handle himself fine.”
O’Neill hopes to handle himself just as well if I’ll Have Another does earn a spot in the first classic race of the season. In his last—and only—trip to the Derby, O’Neill saddled a pair of Reddam horses, Great Hunter and Liquidity, to 13th and 14th-place finishes, respectively.
“I think we all—I know I did—kind of got caught up in the whole feeling that we’d made it. We’d gotten two horses to the Derby and, in a sense, that was good enough,” O’Neill recalled. “I was really conservative with the horses training up to the race and don’t think I had them prepared as well as they could have been.
“I told Mr. Reddam that the next time it would be different. I think I’ll be better equipped to handle the whole ordeal this time around after being there, and I know I’d be much more aggressive in the way I got the horse fit, both mentally and physically, to run to the best of its ability. It would be really great to get that chance.”
Steve Bailey is deputy news editor of Thoroughbred Times
READER COMMENTS
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Posted by: Leonard, Lawndale, CA on February 13, 2012 at 09:51 PM
I'll Have Another is looking like the real deal, let's see how he fare's from here on out
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Posted by: paul, plano, TX on February 09, 2012 at 10:12 AM
Had him last week, after they spent the $$$$'s to ship him to Saratoga, then had that sealed track. So Where's Currency Swap in the first Derby Pool?
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