The seven-furlong $250,000 Darley Debutante (gr. I) drew 12 juvenile fillies, with undefeated Wickedly Perfect the likely choice following her sharp score in the Sorrento Stakes (gr. III) Aug. 6.

Doug O'Neill, atop Del Mar's trainer standings, saddles Wickedly Perfect, who broke her maiden at first asking at Hollywood Park and polished off a competitive field of seven in the Sorrento. She's worked once since that game one-length triumph, going an easy six furlongs in 1:14 2/5 Aug. 27.

Rafael Bejarano, second to Rosario in the riding standings as of Sept. 1, retains the mount on the $70,000 purchase at Ocala's April sale of 2-year-olds in training. They break from post 2 with high weight of 122 pounds.

Summer job was first step to success
By Ed Zieralski , UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

What if Doug O’Neill’s mother had said no? What if she'd said, “Douglas, you’re not working six days a week down there at that Del Mar Racetrack?”

The story is from Jude Feld, a trainer for 20 years on the Southern California circuit who now manages a farm in Versailles, Ky., and is in various aspects of horse racing media there.

“It’s my favorite racing story,” Feld said. “Doug was working for us up at Santa Anita (in the mid-1980s), and then we asked him if he wanted to work the summer at Del Mar. He came down and did a great job the first week, and after feeding time Friday, he starts leaving and says, ‘Well, I’ll see you guys Monday.’

“That’s when we told him we raced on weekends, and the only real day off is Tuesday. He looked at us, and said, ‘Oh, man, my mom isn’t going to like this.’ ”

Feld told him to go home and get things square with his mom so he could return. Of course O’Neill did, and now, with his mom’s permission, he is at the top of his game in the racing business.

“I’m very proud of him,” Feld said. “He’s always been a hard worker, conscientious, great with people. He’s the world’s friendliest guy. Yeah, I put the (lead) shank in his hand and taught him a little bit about horses, but he came a long way from there.”

In the last six-plus years at Del Mar, O’Neill, 42, has been as dominant as any trainer here. He won his first trainer title in 2004 and went back-to-back in 2006 and 2007. John Sadler owns the past two with 31 wins each year, but O’Neill opened up the first week here with eight wins in 23 starts. In the past decade, O’Neill has won 23 trainer titles at Southern California tracks. He’s well on his way to a 24th after a start to a meeting like no other for him.

O’Neill praised first-year track superintendent Richard Tedesco for making the Polytrack safe, sound and fair. And he gives a lot of credit to his brother, Dennis, who is his bloodstock agent, scout and expert handicapper who places O’Neill-trained horses in races they can win.

“It’s such a game of streaks,” O’Neill said. “But there’s no better time than the beginning of a meeting to have a hot stable of horses. We’re off to a great start, but the trick is to keep it going.”

Trainer Bob Baffert knows about racing luck and streaks. He won seven straight training titles at Del Mar between 1997 and 2003 before O’Neill broke through in ’04.

“It all depends on the caliber of horses you have,” Baffert said. (O’Neill) has started out really strong, and Jim Cassidy has taken all the big turf races. It just depends on the caliber of the horses in your barn.”

O’Neill started in the business the way his fellow competitor, Sadler, began at Del Mar. He worked the backstretch, walking horses, taking care of barns, learning the business from the hay outward.

“I remember my first day,” said O’Neill, who grew up in Santa Monica. “I was back there walking all these horses I’d read about, these incredible athletes, and when the week was over, I couldn’t wait to go home to tell everyone about it.”

He grew up in a family that loved harness racing. His father, Patrick, who has since passed away, led the charge three or four times a week to the track.

“I could read the Racing Form from the time I was 12 years old,” O’Neill said. “But the first time I walked onto the backstretch at Santa Anita, I was hooked on the sport. That was it.”

O’Neill says Feld is the trainer who started it all for him, but O’Neill also worked with trainers Hector Palma, Richard Mandella and Doug Peterson.

O’Neill’s barn will be busy this week, starting with today’s Wickerr Stakes. He will start A Lil Dumaani, who won and had a third-place showing on the turf at Del Mar last year. On Saturday, he saddles Repo, a 3-year-old filly, in the Fleet Treat Stakes. Repo has won three of nine races and taken three seconds. Repo also won the CTBA Stakes last year at Del Mar over 5½ furlongs.

“She really likes Del Mar,” O’Neill said.

On Sunday in the San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the Polytrack, O’Neill sends out Enriched, the 5-year-old gelding who won by 9¼ lengths in his last race at Hollywood Park on May 22 on turf, but finished third in Saturday’s Grade I Eddie Read Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on the turf.

“He’s knocking down the barn door, training really well, so we’re going to send him at this shorter distance right back,” O’Neill said.

Tracy Gantz, The BloodHorse

When trainer Doug O’Neill’s charges head to the racetrack during training hours at Hollywood Park, a familiar dark bay gelding often accompanies them. Lava Man, who won three Hollywood Gold Cups (gr. I) during a long racing career in which he earned $5,268,706, has settled into his new job as a stable pony.

"Sabas Rivera, one of my foremen, spent probably two or three hours a day with him," said O’Neill. "He’s got Lava Man chaperoning horses to the track. The horse is very mellow, especially around the barn."

Rivera taught Lava Man to carry a Western saddle instead of a regular exercise saddle. O’Neill said that they also now use a hackamore instead of a bit and bridle.

"A horse like him, in Sabas’ mind, you put a bit in his mouth, he feels the pressure in the back of his mouth and he wants to go," said O’Neill. "This way it’s all pressure under his mouth."

O’Neill said that Lava Man is enjoying the new experiences. The gelding has always loved the activity at the barn, which was one of the reasons owners Jason Wood and Steve, Dave, and Tracy Kenly brought him out of retirement last year following stem cell treatment. Lava Man finished last in the San Gabriel Handicap (gr. IIT) Dec. 27, 2009, and he was retired again.

Lava Man set a record for earnings after being claimed. Wood and the Kenlys claimed Lava Man for $50,000 at Del Mar in 2004, and the gelding subsequently earned $5,180,678. Now 9, the California-bred son of Slew City Slew  —Li’l Ms. Leonard, by Nostalgia's Star, won 13 stakes and is the only horse to win the Gold Cup, Santa Anita Handicap (gr. I), and Pacific Classic (gr. I) in one year.

O’Neill said that Lava Man will lead the post parade for this year’s Gold Cup on July 10. Lava Man won the race in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Steve Haskin's Look Back at the Decade 

Editors of The Blood-Horse challenged senior correspondent Steve Haskin to fill in the blanks on several “best of” lists for the decade of 2000-2009. While several of them appear in the Dec. 26/Jan. 2 combined issue of the magazine (mailing on Dec. 29), there wasn’t space for them all.

Greatest Training Achievements (Individual Horse)
Top Ten

 7 - Doug O’Neill getting his $50,000 claim, Lava Man, to win three consecutive Hollywood Gold Cups at ages 4, 5, and 6, and becoming the first horse ever to win the Santa Anita Handicap, Hollywood Gold Cup, and Pacific Classic in the same year.