It’s not often that a Kentucky Derby champion trainer and his wife make it into an Ave Maria Press high school theology textbook. But that’s the case with Doug O’Neill, trainer of 2016 champion Nyquist (and 2012 Kentucky Derby winner, I’ll Have Another) and his wife Linette Galvan O’Neill.
Doug and Linette both are graduates of St. Monica Catholic High School in Santa Monica, California. Due to a special friendship with their former teacher and coach who is also the author of Marriage and Holy Orders: Your Call to Love and Serve, the interesting story of Doug’s marriage proposal to Linette made it into a chapter on the Sacrament of Matrimony.
More backstory: Shanda Farmer, the daughter of Chicago White Sox announcer Ed Farmer, who communicated Doug’s proposal, was also a friend and classmate of Linette at St. Monica’s.
Doug and Linette have been married for over twenty years. They have two children, Daniel and Kaylin.
Encourage your students to reach the top of their vocations and professions and to strive for a successful family life like Doug and Linette. And root Doug and Nyquist on in this Saturday’s Preakness Stakes!
