Doug O'Neill hopes to win his third Kentucky Derby–all in the past nine years–come the first Saturday in May.
The 52-year-old Michigander won the 2012 Run for the Roses with I'll Have Another and in 2016 with 2020's leading freshman sire Nyquist.
O'Neill currently has two sophomores listed in Pool 3 of the 24 Kentucky Derby Future Wager categories, Hot Rod Charlie and The Great One, each offered at 20-1 on the morning line.
The Great One, a Kentucky-bred colt by Nyquist who is owned in-part by Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson's ERJ Racing Stable, comes off a smashing 14-length one mile maiden score here on Jan. 23 and is being pointed to the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., on March 6.
Second, beaten a nose in the G2 Los Alamitos Futurity Dec. 19, The Great One earned a 92 Beyer Speed figure in his maiden triumph.
The Great One worked six furlongs at Santa Anita on Saturday morning in 1:15.80, while Hot Rod Charlie went four furlongs in :51.20.
Of the 24 categories listed for Pool 3 in the KDFW, horses in eight of them (better than 33 percent) call Santa Anita home.
They are Concert Tour, Freedom Fighter and Medina Spirit, each at 20-1, and Life Is Good, 8-1, all trained by Bob Baffert; Dream Shake, 20-1, Peter Eurton; Hot Rod Charlie and The Great One, each 20-1, O'Neill; and Roman Centurian, 30-1, Simon Callaghan.
Six of the last nine Kentucky Derby winners have been based in Southern California, five at Santa Anita: Authentic, 2020; Justify, 2018; Nyquist, 2016; American Pharoah, 2015; and I'll Have Another, 2012.
California Chrome, winner of the Run for the Roses in 2014, was headquartered at Los Alamitos.
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