ARCADIA, Calif. – With one predictable result, and one far from expected, trainer Doug O’Neill won two of the six stakes on Santa Anita’s opening-day program on Thursday with an established sprinter and an older horse meeting expectations.
Raging Torrent was the 5-2 favorite in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs and ran to expectations, winning by 1 1/4 lengths for his fourth win in his last five starts.
Earlier on the program, J B Strikes Back, an 18-1 outsider, led throughout the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on dirt.
Raging Torrent’s only recent loss was a seventh-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at six furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 2.
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“I think seven-eighths has been confirmed as his best distance, anything one-turn over six furlongs,” O’Neill said.
With that approach, Raging Torrent may have his 2025 debut in the Group 2 Godolphin Mile at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai on April 5. The $1 million Godolphin Mile is run around one turn.
O’Neill said he is comfortable with a lengthy gap between starts for Raging Torrent, who races for Mark Davis and the Great Friends Stable partnership.
“We’re trying to find good spots for him,” O’Neill said. “There is no need to run him just to run him. He gives you 100 percent. He’ll be fit and ready for wherever we go.”
In the Malibu, Raging Torrent beat a field that included Mystik Dan, winner of the 2024 Kentucky Derby. Mystik Dan finished last of six as the 3-1 second choice, never posing a threat in his first start since an eighth-place finish in the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga in June.
J B Strikes Back won his third consecutive start in the $201,500 Pincay Stakes, named in honor of the retired Hall of Fame jockey. J B Strikes Back has won 4 of 9 starts in a fascinating career. He was claimed from O’Neill and owner Janie Buss for $20,000 in July and then re-claimed by them for $25,000 in the gelding’s next start in August.
O’Neill describes J B Strikes Back as being unfocused at times, at least until his recent span of success.
“He’s like a kid. Instead of doing his homework, he’s at the local park hanging out,” O’Neill said. “He didn’t really apply himself. He has in the last three races.”
O’Neill said the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes at 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita on Jan. 25 is a possibility for J B Strikes Back.
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