Hot Rod Charlie, Get Her Number Resume Training

Hot Rod Charlie and Get Her Number, grade 1-caliber colts who sat out the final stages of their 2-year-old seasons, have resumed training toward their returns as 3-year-olds, according to their trainers.

The Doug O'Neill-trained Hot Rod Charlie, second at 94-1 odds in the TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare (G1) at Keeneland Nov. 6, recorded his first workout since the race when he went a half-mile Dec. 26 at Santa Anita Park in :49 2/5. Also in Southern California, graded stakes winner Get Her Number has been jogging for trainer Peter Miller after given a break after a setback. The latter won the American Pharoah Stakes (G1) Sept. 26 at Santa Anita in his final start at 2.

The Juvenile was Hot Rod Charlie's fifth start of the year and followed a maiden victory at Santa Anita Park Oct. 2 in which he beat the well-regarded Parnelli. A half brother to 2019 champion sprinter Mitole  by Oxbow , he has made $383,700 for owners Roadrunner Racing, Boat Racing, and Strauss Bros Racing. 

"He's going great. We intentionally gave him a few weeks of (doing) a whole lot of nothing off the big race there at Keeneland," said O'Neill. "He's back training as good as ever. The (Robert B. Lewis Stakes, G3) at the end of January is circled for him. That's our tentative goal. He's doing really, really well."

The Jan. 30 Robert B. Lewis, a $100,000 race at 1 1/16 miles, is Santa Anita's second prep on the Road to the Kentucky Derby following the $100,000 Sham Stakes (G3) Jan. 2.

O'Neill is a two-time winner of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), having captured it in 2012 with I'll Have Another  and in 2016 with Nyquist .

Gary Barber's Get Her Number, by Dialed In , never left Miller's San Luis Rey Downs stable when given time off, Miller said.

"We just backed off on him. We tacked walked him for a month, jogged him for a month. He'll start galloping once the weather cooperates," he said. "If things go well, I hope to get him back in action in early March."

Santa Anita's top 3-year-old race during that time period is the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes (G2) March 6.  Another major Derby prep that month is the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) March 13 at Oaklawn Park, where Miller also will have a string of horses.

Get Her Number won two of three starts and $219,000 this year. He broke his maiden at Del Mar on grass at five furlongs before running fourth in the one-mile Del Mar Juvenile Turf Stakes. The 1 1/16-mile American Pharoah was his first race on dirt.