Trainer Doug O’Neill approaches another career milestone after winning major races all over the world, including five Breeders’ Cup races and two-thirds of the Triple Crown, and earning over $170 million in purse earnings. O’Neill is four victories shy of reaching 3,000 for his career and has been a finalist for entry into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame since 2021. With seven horses entered in six races over the next three days, including the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in November at Del Mar, a “Win and You’re In” for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Handicap, and the millionaire Raging Torrent in Saturday’s Grade 1 Hill ‘n’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap at Saratoga Race Course, he could reach that total this weekend.
The newly turned 57-year-old O’Neill has one horse in Friday, three on Saturday, and two on Sunday at his home base of Santa Anita, in addition to Zhang Yuesheng and Craig Dado’s Raging Torrent. On Friday, his first morning in Saratoga since arriving Thursday evening, O’Neill remarked, “I don’t really think about it, but it is a pretty phenomenal number and just a credit to an unbelievable staff and a great group of owners.” We’ve won a lot of races and are fortunate to have some excellent horses. Hopefully, we can continue. For the first time in over a week, O’Neill saw the bay son of Maximus Mischief as Raging Torrent galloped 1 1/2 miles over the Oklahoma training course on Friday morning, who had a maintenance half-mile breeze in 50.99 seconds Monday on the main track.
“The colt looked amazing this morning, had a fantastic appetite, and had a lot of enthusiasm on the course. I’m incredibly joyful and hopeful,” O’Neill remarked. “He’s doing incredibly well. He enjoyed a pleasant little breeze over the track and adapted well to this place. We’re thrilled. I hope we are fortunate. O’Neill won the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1) in 2012 with I’ll Have Another, who retired after being scratched due to a leg ailment on the eve of the Belmont Stakes (G1). O’Neill ran for Hall of Fame multimillionaire Lava Man and added another Derby win with Nyquist in 2016. White, a four-time Grade 1 winner this year, is one of the races O’Neill would prefer to introduce with the prestige of the Met Mile, Abarrio, earner of nearly $7 million in purses, and three-time Grade 1 winner Fierceness, the 2-Year-Old Champion Male of 2023 who is a perfect 3-0 at Saratoga.
From outermost post 5, Frankie Dettori will ride Raging Torrent, weighing 123 pounds, three pounds less than topweight White Abarrio. “The Met Mile is always so very hard to win, but it’s even more prestigious this year with horses like Fierceness and White Abarrio in it,” O’Neill stated. So, I’m really excited and it’s going to be wonderful. If all goes according to plan, I firmly believe Raging Torrent can handle it.
