Club Aspen Tops 3-Year-Olds in California Cup Derby

Though the California-bred stakes showcase at Santa Anita Park Jan. 18 is absent an extensive list of major names, it isn't lacking major dollars. With purses for the stakes ranging from $150,000 to $200,000, a total of $900,000 is up for grabs among the five black-type contests on the nine-race card.

Co-richest with the Unusual Heat Turf Classic Stakes and the California Cup Oaks is the California Cup Derby, a $200,000 contest for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles that is carded as the seventh race. A stakes that helped launch California Chrome  to stardom in 2014—he went on to win the San Felipe Stakes (G2), Santa Anita Derby (G1), and Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1)—Saturday's nine-horse renewal seems wide open, drawing horses stretching out in distance and others shifting surfaces.

One of the few entrants proven as a dirt router is Club Aspen, winner of the one-mile King Glorious Stakes at Los Alamitos Race Course Dec. 15. A son of Clubhouse Ride owned by Lawrence Lewis, he has won two of seven starts and $118,211. 

Video: King Glorious S. (BT)

Improved in his final two starts of 2019 for trainer Craig Lewis, during which he ran second in a Nov. 30 allowance optional claimer at Del Mar before the King Glorious, he will be ridden by regular jockey Jorge Velez.

Two previous starts at Santa Anita resulted in rear-half finishes for Club Aspen, though one was in open company on turf when sixth in the Oct. 6 Zuma Beach Stakes. He was seventh on dirt in the Nov. 1 Golden State Juvenile Stakes in one of the undercard races on Breeders' Cup Friday.

Other stakes winners in the field include Northern California invader Bettor Trip Nick, who won a pair of black-type races at Golden Gate Fields on Tapeta, and Big Returns, who was elevated to first in last summer's Graduation Stakes at Del Mar upon the disqualification of Square Deal.

The other $200,000 races Saturday at Santa Anita are both on the grass: the Unusual Heat Turf Classic at 1 1/8 miles for older horses and the California Cup Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at a mile.

With a bankroll of over $1.47 million, Ashleyluvssugar has earned more than his seven Unusual Turf Classic opponents combined—though he has not won over his last 14 races since capturing the winning the Charles Whittingham Stakes (G2T) as a 6-year-old in May 2017. He also won the Whittingham in 2015, which marked the second of his five graded stakes wins.

He won this race in 2017 when it was called the California Cup Turf Classic Stakes Presented by City National Bank. He was second last year under the race's current name.

A 9-year-old gelded son of Game Plan owned by Sharon Alesia, Bran Jam Stable, and Ciaglia Racing, Ashleyluvssugar makes his second start following a four-month layoff. He finished fifth in the Nov. 30 Berkeley Handicap (G3) on Tapeta at Golden Gate.

KMN Racing's Been Studying Her, a two-time stakes winner, is among the most promising entries in the California Cup Oaks. Yet to start on grass, she possesses turf blood in her pedigree, being by Fast Anna  out of the stakes-placed Kitten's Joy mare Maddie's Odyssey, who won four races on grass. Two of Been Studying Her's half siblings are winners on turf, including multiple stakes winner Grecian Fire.

Mike Smith will ride for trainer Dan Ward.

Earlier stakes races at Santa Anita are topped by Just Grazed Me in the $150,000 Sunshine Millions Filly And Mare Turf Sprint Stakes and 5-for-6 Baja Sur in the $150,000 California Cup Sprint Stakes.

Entries: Unusual Heat Turf Classic S.

Santa Anita Park, Saturday, January 18, 2020, Race 6

• STK
• 1 1/8m
• Turf
• $200,000
• 4 yo's & up
• 3:07 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Ward 'n Jerry (CA)	UMBERTO RISPOLI	120	Mike Puype	5/2
2	2Cono (KY)	Mario Gutierrez	120	Michael W. McCarthy	15/1
3	3Accountability (CA)	Rafael Bejarano	120	Rafael Becerra	15/1
4	4The Hunted (CA)	Tiago Josue Pereira	124	Richard Baltas	9/5
5	5Wound Tight (CA)	Abel Cedillo	122	Robert B. Hess, Jr.	5/1
6	6Desmond Doss (CA)	Drayden Van Dyke	120	Philip D'Amato	8/1
7	7Mobou (CA)	Victor Espinoza	120	John A. Shirreffs	20/1
8	8Ashleyluvssugar (CA)	Flavien Prat	120	Peter Eurton	7/2