Cal Cup Derby Among Five Stakes Jan. 18 at Santa Anita

Five stakes worth a combined $775,000 spotlight California-bred racing Jan. 18 at Santa Anita Park.

The stakes races were postponed from Jan. 11 after last weekend's racing was canceled due to wildfires in Southern California. Those fires have now burned almost four square miles of highly dense parts of Los Angeles.

Three of five stakes—the California Chrome Cal Cup Derby, Leigh Ann Howard California Cup Oaks, and Unusual Heat Turf Classic Stakes—are worth $175,000 apiece, while the remaining pair, the Don Valpredo California Cup Sprint and the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Sprint, offer purses of $125,000. 

Santa Anita's California Chrome Cal Cup Derby, named after Hall of Famer and 2014 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner California Chrome  , drew a competitive field of eight that lured the top five finishers from the King Glorious Stakes last month at Los Alamitos Race Course.

Nick Alexander's homebred Shea Brennan , who prevailed in that race by a nose, squares off against four other King Glorious rivals. Not one of the King Glorious quintet has yet raced the California Cup Derby's distance of 1 1/16 miles. Antonio Fresu rides the Phil D'Amato-trained Shea Brennan, a 3-year-old son of Tough Sunday .

Two other stakes-winning California-breds competing in $175,000 contests on Saturday include Harris Farms' On the Whim  in the 1 1/8-mile Turf Classic and Sayjay Racing's Hey Jessie  in the one-mile California Cup Oaks. Both races are on the grass. A field of 11 is entered in the Turf Classic, in which Old Pal  is favored, and 12 fillies and one also-eligible are in the California Cup Oaks.