TWO-TIME KENTUCKY DERBY-WINNING TRAINER DOUG O’NEILL EXPECTED TO SEND RAGING TORRENT FOR $300,000 SPRINGBOARD MILE

West Coast-based trainer Doug O’Neill has proven he knows how to get a horse ready for the Kentucky Derby; he is expected to give Raging Torrent an opportunity to take a step on that yellow brick road in the $300,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park on Friday, Dec. 15.

The Springboard is the main event on the final night of the Remington Park season, and headlines a card with five other stakes races. The first race on Dec. 15 will be 5pm-Central.

Raging Torrent will travel from the O’Neill base in Southern California and is expected to arrive at Remington Park on Monday, Dec. 11. O’Neill won the Kentucky Derby twice – with Nyquist in 2016 and with I’ll Have Another in 2012. I’ll Have Another also won the Preakness.

The Springboard Mile carries Kentucky Derby points for the top five finishers in a 10-5-3-2-1 fashion. Raging Torrent, a 2-year-old colt by Maximus Mischief (Into Mischief), out of the Violence mare Violent Wave, has already run against a Kentucky Derby-caliber horse as a juvenile. In his last outing, Raging Torrent finished fourth to Muth in the Grade 1, $300,000 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., on Oct. 7. That gave the O’Neill-trained colt two Kentucky Derby qualifying points for that fourth-place finish.

Muth came back and ran second in the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, losing to Fierceness by 6-1/4 lengths. Fierceness is the current winter book favorite for the Kentucky Derby.

Raging Torrent, owned by Great Friends Stables and Mark Davis, was a $75,000 purchase at the Ocala Breeders Spring Sale for 2-year-olds-in-training this year. The colt began his racing career with a win at first asking on July 23 at Del Mar near San Diego, drawing off by 2-1/4 lengths. O’Neill immediately entered him in his first graded stakes race, the Grade 3, $200,000 Best Pal Stakes, in which he finished third, beaten 8-3/4 lengths. That didn’t deter O’Neill’s and his owners’ confidence in the colt. Raging Torrent came back to race in two Grade 1s – the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity and the American Pharoah. He finished fourth in both of those, adding blinkers in the latter race.

O’Neill has been training since 1988 and his horses have earned $159,749,239. That puts him 14th on the all-time winningest trainers list by earnings, according to Equibase statistics. He has had 17,736 starters with 2,841 wins; 2,617 seconds and 2,431 thirds. He has trained such Grade 1 winners as Lava Man, Hot Rod Charlie and Goldencents.

The post-position draw for the Springboard Mile program at Remington Park will take place Thursday morning in the track’s racing office. The other stakes events on the Dec. 15 card include the $75,000 Trapeze Stakes, the $75,000 Jeffrey Hawk Memorial, the $75,000 She’s All In Stakes, the $50,000 Useeit Stakes and the $50,000 Jim Thorpe Stakes.

Remington Park has provided more than $340 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District, Remington Park is home to the Springboard Mile, a Kentucky Derby points-qualifying race, on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. Remington Park presents simulcast racing daily and non-stop casino gaming. Parking and admission are always free. Must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.

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