O'Neill: Hot Rod Charlie could point to Pacific Classic

Doug O’Neill couldn’t have been more gratified with Hot Rod Charlie if he had won the Belmont Stakes instead of running a gallant second to champion Essential Quality in the third jewel of racing’s Triple Crown Saturday.

“We’re super proud of him,” O’Neill said by phone Sunday morning while waiting to board a plane bringing him home to California where he and Hot Rod Charlie are based at Santa Anita. “He looks fantastic this morning.”

That’s a mouthful, considering Hot Rod Charlie and Flavien Prat set quarter mile and half mile “swift splits” of 22.78 and 46.49, uncharacteristically fast fractions for the distance of a mile and a half. (Read more on that here.)

Yet while on the rail with favored Essential Quality outside him, the son of Oxbow soldiered on until deep stretch before yielding by a length and a quarter in what the Equibase chart called a “gutsy effort.”

“The horse will fly back (to California) Tuesday, but we have no immediate plans for his next race,” O’Neill said. “We couldn’t have asked for him to come out of it any better.

“He ate up everything, his legs were cold, he has good energy, he’s sound. The manner in which he came out of it gives us many options; we’ll put our heads together and play it by ear.”

Although his plans are indefinite, O’Neill acknowledged the Pacific Classic (G1), for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 21, is under strong consideration.

“As a 3-year-old, we’d get a big break in the weights and a few of our owners live down there,” he said.