Cal Cup

Saturday, Oct. 28th Oak Tree at Santa Anita.

Cal Cup a Showcase for Top Sires

ARCADIA, Calif. (Oct. 16, 2006) -- The list of sires represented in Cal Cup XVII has many familiar names. Among the stallions with runners nominated to the eight major stakes races to be run at Oak Tree at Santa Anita on Oct. 28 are five with 10 or more, all perennially among the state’s leaders.

This group includes Vessels Stallion Farm’s In Excess, River Edge Farm’s Bertrando and Benchmark, Madeline Auerbach’s Unusual Heat, who stands at Old English Rancho, and Pepper Oaks Farm’s Swiss Yodeler.

The 16 Cal Cup nominees sired by In Excess include at least one in each of the eight stakes races. The roster is headed by three stakes winners, including millionaire Texcess, a 4-year-old gelding who won the Delta Million Jackpot as a 2-year-old.

He is named to the $250,000 Cal Cup Classic, the richest race on the program, in which he ran fourth last year, when he was trained by Paul Aguirre. Now running out of the Mike Mitchell barn, Texcess also is nominated to the $175,000 Cal Cup Mile on turf.

Two other stakes winners sired by In Excess are Cal Cup nominees -- 3-year-old Bro Lo, winner of Del Mar’s Im Smokin Stakes in 2005, who is a candidate for the $150,000 Cal Cup Sprint, and 3-year-old filly Mimi Guarneri, who won the CTBA Marian Stakes at this year’s Fairplex Park meet, and is named to the $150,000 Cal Cup Distaff.

Fourteen Bertrando offspring representing all eight Cal Cup stakes have been nominated to the program. They include 6-year-old gelding Unfurl the Flag, winner of the Grade I Triple Bend Handicap at Hollywood Park, who is named to the Classic, Mile and Sprint.

Four-year-old filly Kresgeville, who has won Hollywood Park’s Manhattan Beach Handicap, is nominated to the Distaff, and 2-year-old Zoning In, winner of Bay Meadows’ Malcolm Anderson Stakes, is a candidate for the Juvenile.

Unusual Heat also is the sire of 14 Cal Cup nominees, covering all but the Classic and Sprint. This group is headed by the 5-year-old mare Scrofa, a winner of Santa Anita’s Irish O’Brien Stakes, and also features stakes-placed Bardy Woman, a candidate for the Matron, and stakes-placed Spenditallbady, nominated to the Juvenile Fillies.

Swiss Yodeler’s roster of 12 Cal Cup nominees has, as would be expected for such a prolific sire of precocious runners, five 2-year-olds nominated to the Juvenile and five 2-year-old females named to the Juvenile Fillies.

But the list is topped by 4-year-old Thor’s Echo, one of America’s most consistent sprinters this year. The gelding ran second in the $2 million Golden Shaheen in Dubai and was second to fellow Cal-bred Bordonaro in the Grade I Ancient Title Handicap at Oak Tree on Oct. 7. He, of course, is nominated to the Cal Cup Sprint.

Yodeladytoo, a 4-year-old filly who finished second in Del Mar’s CERF Handicap, is a Swiss Yodeler-sired candidate for the Distaff. The roster of 2-year-olds includes colts Belknap, Crimson Cowboy and Swiss Ski and geldings Lucky Thirteen and River Echo for the Juvenile and fillies Chocolate Heaven, Hello Bolly, Let’s Go Shopping, Swiss Current and Swiss Rose for the Juvenile Fillies.

Benchmark is represented by 9 Cal Cup nominees in six races, led by Classic candidate Brother Derek, winner of the Santa Anita Derby, who seems headed for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic after finishing second to Cal-bred Lava Man in the Goodwood Handicap at Oak Tree on Oct. 7.

This promising young sire is also represented by a duo of stakes-winning fillies. The Yellow Sheet is nominated for the Distaff, while Ces’t Mark, winner of the CTBA Stakes at Del Mar, is one of four 2-year-old fillies by Benchmark who are candidates for the Cal Cup Juvenile Fillies.
--Larry Bortstein