O'Neill sending Pavel straight to the Breeders' Cup Classic

Doug O’Neill, who finished strong to capture Santa Anita’s Spring Meet training title with 31 victories, hopes to keep the ball rolling when the 22-day Autumn campaign starts Friday.

The 50-year-old has seven overall titles at Santa Anita dating back to the 2004-05 Winter Meet and has 12 horses nominated for the five stakes races on Saturday, Sept. 29, and Sunday, Sept. 30.

Each is a Grade 1 and Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” event, providing the winner with a fees-paid berth to the Nov. 2 and 3 races at Churchill Downs.

One nominee is Pavel for the Awesome Again Stakes on Saturday, although O’Neill will pass the race and train the 4-year-old Creative Cause colt up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic after being vanquished three times by Horse of the Year candidate and Awesome Again favorite Accelerate, the 12 ½-length winner of the Pacific Classic.

Pavel, who worked three furlongs at Santa Anita Friday in 37.60, was second in the Pacific Classic.

“The horse is doing well and I thought he tried hard at Del Mar, but Accelerate ran like a freak,” O’Neill said. “We know Pavel likes Churchill Downs, so that’s a bonus.”

Pavel, of course, won the Grade 1 Stephen Foster by nearly four lengths back on June 16.

“But we’re excited about the meet at Santa Anita,” O’Neill continued. “We had a pretty active Del Mar. You don’t know how that form carries here, but it should carry well, and we look forward to a good meet here. It’s a short meet but a solid meet.

“We’ve got a horse named Whooping Jay that won impressively at Los Alamitos. He might come back in the Speakeasy on Oct. 6.”

Whooping Jay broke his maiden going five furlongs at the Cypress track by 5 1/4 lengths on Sept. 9. The horse worked four furlongs Friday in 51 flat, one of 30 recorded workouts this morning for O’Neill runners.

The Speakeasy, for two-year-olds at five furlongs on turf, is a Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” race with a purse of $100,000.