Trainer responds to critical article

NEW YORK – Doug O’Neill says he’s dismayed that Secretariat’s former owner criticized the connections of Triple Crown candidate I’ll Have Another for employing him as the horse’s trainer.

He thinks Penny Chenery would change her mind if she were to see him work.

“It’s disappointing because of how much respect I have for Mrs. Chenery,” O’Neill said Tuesday. “I would love to have her hang out with me for a week and would stress to her, ‘Don’t believe everything that is written.’ ”

O’Neill has been fined four times and faces a 45-day suspension because one of his horses was found to have an excess level of total carbon dioxide following a race – frequently a sign of an illegal practice known as milkshaking.

However, the California Horse Racing Board agreed with O’Neill that his horse in that 2010 race at Del Mar had not been fed a mixture of bicarbonate of soda, sugar and electrolytes that enhances performance and combats fatigue.

The board did not indicate what might have caused the excess level.

Chenery, 90, one of the most respected figures in thoroughbred racing, questioned why J. Paul Reddam would work with O’Neill in an article published by The Atlantic magazine.

“I think it is regrettable,” Chenery said. “I don’t know Mr. Reddam personally, but I think he should be embarrassed that the trainer he has chosen does not have a clean record.”

O’Neill continues to insist that he abides by the rules.