Edwards Going Left Takes on Masochistic in Cal Cup

By simple deduction, California-bred stakes are supposed to be easier than those against open company. They're supposed to be a nice, soft spot for a quality payday.

But the $150,000 Donald Valpredo California Cup Sprint Stakes, which arrives on a Jan. 27 card that features nine Cal-bred races (four stakes) at Santa Anita Park, is no layup.

The presumptive favorite for the six-furlong sprint is grade 1 winner Masochistic, who is scheduled to make his 8-year-old debut and his first start for trainer Bob Baffert, but trainer John Sadler feels he has an up-and-coming contender in the division in Hronis Racing's Edwards Going Left.

A $50,000 claim by Sadler and Hronis in February of 2017 in his debut, the Midnight Lute  gelding won six of his nine starts the rest of the year—including a Cal-bred stakes win in the Nov. 19 Cary Grant at Del Mar—and showed his class extended beyond the state-bred ranks with a second-place finish in the Dec. 26 Malibu Stakes (G1) to close his 3-year-old campaign.

"The only thing I'm disappointed in is the (rail) post," Sadler said of Edwards Going Left's inside draw for the Cal Cup Sprint. "But he's the horse coming up in that group and he keeps getting better and better."

Sadler ran Edwards Going Left back for a $30,000 maiden claiming tag in March, when he was elevated to victory via disqualification, and the results have largely been positive since. Other than a misfire (sixth) in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G1), the gelding has won or placed in every other race since he moved to the Sadler barn.

"I liked his workout pattern (before the claim) and I liked the fact that he was a Cal-bred," Sadler said. "I also liked that he's what we call a Kentucky Cal-bred, since he's by Midnight Lute, and I really like Midnight Lutes, who are hard knocking horses.

"As far as claims go, we're putting him in the 'plus' column."

Whether Masochistic will continue to show his top talent at his advancing age remains to be seen, but all signs were positive after his final work for the Cal Cup Sprint Jan. 20 at Santa Anita, when he ran the fastest five furlongs (:59 4/5) of the day (from 76 works) from the gate.

BALAN: Masochistic Logs Final Workout for 2018 Debut

"He broke like a rocket last time I worked him and he did the same thing today," jockey Drayden Van Dyke said after the work. "He's so fast. It's fun, but with him, he's very deceiving how fast he's going. It doesn't feel like you're going that fast, but you're flying. He's effortlessly fast."

Solid Wager is the only other graded winner in the field, but that victory came more than a year ago in the 2016 Midnight Lute Stakes (G3).

Another entrant entering the Cal Cup Sprint on an upswing is Nick Alexander's homebred Tough Sunday, who nearly earned his first graded win last time out Dec. 30, when the son of Grazen finished just a neck behind winner Silent Bird in the Midnight Lute.

Valpredo, the race's namesake who has been involved in the Thoroughbred industry for nearly half a century, also has an entry in the field in homebred Country Road.

Also on the Cal Cup card, which is without the Cal Cup Derby and Oaks this year (they've been moved to February), is the $150,000 Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Sprint, which features graded winners Miss Sunset and How Unusual; the $100,000 California Cup Turf Sprint, which features multiple stakes winner Bookies Luck; and the $200,000 Unusual Heat Turf Classic Stakes Presented by City National Bank.