Faversham Tries Stakes Company in California Cup Derby

After an encouraging first start sprinting Jan. 15, Perry and Denise Martin's Faversham, the last full sibling to two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome , will stretch out and step up into stakes company in the $200,000 California Cup Derby Feb. 19 at Santa Anita Park.

Although Alan Sherman, assistant trainer to his father Art Sherman, acknowledges it will be a tough task for the Lucky Pulpit ridgling—who closed from last in his six-furlong debut to finish second behind fellow Cal Cup Derby entrant Violent Ridge—he expects Faversham to give a good account of himself.

"I expect him to run good," Alan Sherman said. "I know he'll try. He's got a lot of try in him, that horse, and he always has. He definitely wants to go around two turns, so that should help him. Running off a maiden sprint into a stakes going a mile and a sixteenth isn't easy, so he doesn't have to win. I just want a good effort out of him, which I think he'll give me."

After his debut at Santa Anita, the Shermans decided to keep Faversham at Santa Anita to train up to the Cal Cup Derby, rather than ship back to their Los Alamitos Race Course base, because they felt the deeper surface of the Santa Anita main track would get the 3-year-old chestnut in better shape.

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"It's hard to win on this track if you're not training on it and working on it," Alan Sherman said. "Before the (renovated) Los Al (in early February), it was just hard, because Los Al was so fast and this track was a little deeper.

"He came out of the race really well and is a lot more aggressive. It turned the light bulb on, and he worked phenomenal the other day. He looked really good and I was really happy with it."

While Faversham may have the most famous family member in the 12-horse Cal Cup Derby field, Robert Baedeker, Michael Pageler, and Michael Sigband's Heck Yeah is one of the most accomplished entrants on the racetrack, and he's shown versatility in his young career.

The Bob Baffert-trained Acclamation colt won his debut in December at Los Alamitos by 5 1/4 lengths sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs, then came back to win the California Cup Turf Sprint Stakes over the Santa Anita hillside turf course by 2 1/2 lengths Jan. 27. The Cal Cup Derby will be his first start around two turns.

Two other Cal-bred stakes winners are in the field—Intimidate and Continental Divide—but Intimidate's stakes win came in the two-turn King Glorious Stakes at Los Alamitos Dec. 16, while Continental Divide scored sprinting in the Aug. 6 Graduation Stakes at Del Mar.

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Intimidate, who is trained at Golden Gate Fields by Bob Hess, finished third in the California Derby there last time out Jan. 20 against open company. Hess' son, trainer Bob Hess Jr., also has an entrant in the Cal Cup Derby with Kaleidoscope Kid.

Also on the second "Cal Cup Day" of the Santa Anita meet is the $200,000 California Cup Oaks at a mile on the grass.

Ruis Racing's One Fast Broad, a versatile Decarchy filly who has won two Cal-bred stakes on dirt and placed in two open-company stakes on grass—including a half-length second last time out in the Blue Norther Dec. 31—heads the eight-filly field.