Volume 2 • Number 37 Official publication of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association WEEEKLYEKLY WWEEKLYWednesdaednesdEay, Sy,EKLYe pApriltemb e16,r 1 62008, 2009 This Week’s Issue Is Sponsored by Co-HostedCo-Hosted by by California California Thoroughbred Thoroughbred Breeders Breeders Association Association and Oak Tree Racing Association and Oak Tree Racing Association W Saturday, October 3, 2009, Santa Anita Park Saturday, October 3, 2009, Santa Anita Park Early Bird Nominations Close Monday, August 17, 2009 ERegular Nominations Close Thursday, September 24, 2009 The Best Of The Best The theme of this year’s California Cup is, “Best of the Best.” In The Beginning The slogan was chosen to celebrate the previous winners of the The $250,000 Classic in 1991 saw three-year-old Charmonnier $200,000 Cal Cup Classic Handicap, the 1 1/8-mile signature defeat Best Pal by a head at odds of 28-1 to give Hall of Fame event of this $1 million, 10-race program for California-breds that trainer Bob Baffert, then still a relative newcomer in will enjoy its 20th anniversary at Santa Anita Park on Saturday, Thoroughbred racing, his biggest of three victories that day. No Oct. 3, during the 41st Oak Tree Racing Association meet. slouch in his own right, the gelded son of Batonnier was bred and Among those 19 Classic winners to date are seven millionaires, owned by Robert H. Walter and was already a three-time stakes five of whom are among the 10 Cal-bred champions who have won winner before his date with Best Pal. this prestigious event, including two California Horses of the Year. The inaugural Classic was won by My Sonny Boy, a five-year- One of these was the appropriately-named Best Pal, a Habitony old gelding bred by the Johnston family’s Old English Rancho. (Eng) gelding who had already won his six career grade I races and By To-Agori-Mou (Ire), he had won Faiplex Park’s C. B. six of his eight Golden State championship titles, including three Afflerbaugh Stakes earlier in 1990. In 1992, the Classic was California Horse of the Year trophies, when he captured the taken by June’s Reward, a four-year-old son gelded son of Hail Classic as a five-year- old in 1993. Bred and owned by the late Bold King bred by Nicholas Dallis and Walter Gold. Grade II- John Mabee and his wife Betty, the earner of $5,668,245 during placed as a three-year-old, he triumphed over millionaire Flying seven racing seasons was also the beaten favorite in the 1991 edi - Continental. tion worth $300,000. Earlier that year, after a runner-up finish in Best Pal’s 1993 Classic score was followed by three-year-old the Kentucky Derby (grade I), he had won the inaugural running College Town, a David Brown homebred gelding who was the most of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club’s $1 million Pacific Classic to successful offspring of Snow Chief, the Calbred who was voted go with his scores in the Holly wood F utur ity and the Norfolk North America’s best sophomore of 1986. College Town had also Stakes as a two-year-old. won the grade III Lazaro Barrera Handicap that year and was voted Continued on next page www.ctba.com CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED WEEKLY • September 16, 2009 1 The Best Of The Best Continued Continued from page 1 Classic. The gelded, oft-injured son of Jaklin Klugman won 10 the California Champion Three-Year-Old Male of 1994. The next races in his abbreviated 18-race career and banked $1,115,127. He year, he added the grade II Arcadia Handicap to his resumé. was bred and owned by the late Rene Lambert and his wife Margie. Luthier Fever won only one stakes in his 25- race career, but Flying Continental never won the Classic, but his five-year-old the grade I-placed millionaire defeated Best Pal in the 1995 son Irisheyesareflying took the honors in 2001. Earlier that year, Classic as a four-year-old. The son of Mt. Livermore was bred by he won the Longacres Mile and, in 2002, he won another grade Cuadra TYT Inc. III event, the Berkeley Handicap. Bred by CTBA Past President The versatile Megan’s Interco, a dual graded stakes winner who Wes Fitzpatrick and his wife Sharon, he is now a stallion in Texas. won the Cal Cup Mile in both 1993 and 1995, became the oldest Calkins Road became the third three-year-old to win the Classic Classic champion when he won as a seven-year-old in 1996. An when he captured the title in 2002. As the California Champion earner of $1,062,455, the gelded son of 1984 Santa Anita Three-Year-Old Male of that year, the son of Illinois Storm had Handicap (grade I) winner Interco was bred by Milt Bronson and also won Hollywood Park’s $250,000 Snow Chief Stakes at voted the 1996 California Champion Older Male and Turf Horse. California Gold Rush IV. He was bred and owned by Thomas and Also voted California Champion Older Male was the 1997 Deborah Shapiro and now stands at stud in the Golden State. Classic winner Awesome Daze. Bred by Robert Monroy, the Lil Tyler Also now a stallion in California, grade II-placed Tizbud could - gelding was five when he won the rich Cal Cup race and raced for n’t match the overall feats of his full brothers Tiznow and three more years, adding two more stakes races to his name. Budroyale but, as a four-year-old in 2003, he matched the latter as a Classic winner in the only stakes triumph of his eight-race career. Cozy Guy, the most recent three- year-old to win the Classic, won the next year when he also went on to be named the California Champion My Sonny Boy Charmonnier June’s Reward Best Pal College Town Three-Year-Old Male. By 1996 Breeders’ Cup Classic champion Alphabet Soup, he was bred by John Zamora. Grade I-placed McCann’s Luthier Fever Megan’s Interco Awesome Daze Budroyale Bagshot Mojave, a grade II winner and the California Champion Older Male in 2004, won the 2005 Classic at five and also captured the grade III Berkeley Stakes in 2008, before retiring with earnings of Sky Jack Irisheyesareflying Calkins Road Tizbud Cozy Guy $1,513,565. The son of Memo (Chi) was bred and owned by Alix Nikki Hunt and Mike Willman. ? Texcess, the 2006 Classic winner, was a California champion the year McCann’s Mojave Texcess Bold Chieftain Mr. Chairman that he won the $1,000,000 Delta ©Benoit Photos Jackpot Stakes and Cal Cup The 1999 California Horse of the Year Budroyale, whose little Juvenile Stakes. By In Excess (Ire), the multiple graded stake - brother Tiznow would go on to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic in splaced gelding was bred by Ron Gomez and retired with earnings both 2000 and 2001, took the 1998 Classic. In his championship of $1,235,335. season, the gelded son of Cee’s Tizzy won three graded stakes races A multiple stakes winner and the California Champion Turf and was runner-up in the Hollywood Gold Cup and $3,664,000 Horse of last year, the 2007 Classic winner Bold Chieftain is still Breeders’ Cup Classic Stakes, both grade I events. Bred by Cecilia competing at the age of six with two more graded stakes placings Straub-Rubens, he earned $2,840,810 from 17 victories and 14 and current earnings of $917,411. Bred and owned by trainer Bill placings in 52 starts. Morey in partnership with Ernest Langbein, Ken Robinson and In The 21st Century Dwaine Hall, he is by Chief Seattle. Second in both the 1998 Classic and grade I Big ‘Cap, Bagshot Mr. Chairman became the first son of California’s reigning succeeded Budroyale as the victor a year later. Also a stakes win - leading sire Unusual Heat to win the Classic when he triumphed ner as a juvenile, the five-year-old son of Smokester, now stand - in the $250,000 event as a five-year-old in 2008. The gelding ing at stud in Oregon, was bred by John Toffan and the late Trudy was bred by David Abrams and Tom Roberts. Continuing the McCaffery. “Best of the Best” theme, the following pages review the careers Sky Jack, who would go on to win the Hollywood Gold Cup in of those talented Cal-breds who succeeded at Cal Cup X a 2001, achieved his first stakes success as a four-year-old in the 2000 decade ago.— by LARRY BORTSTEIN 2 CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED WEEKLY • September 16, 2009 www.ctba.com 322 Early-Bird Noms Cal Cup Yearling Sale For Photos And Catalog Online Cal Cup XX Submitted photographs and videos of yearlings A total of 322 early-bird nominations were received for the in the 2009 California Cup Yearling Sale catalog, $1 million California Cup XX. co-sponsored by the California Thoroughbred The series of 10 stakes races exclusively for California-breds, Breeders Association, are now online and can be will be held Saturday, Oct. 3, during this year’s 41st Oak Tree Racing viewed at http://barretts.com/Catalog/catoct09/ Association meeting at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia . First post is photo.htm. noon and gates open at 10 a.m. The catalog for the Inaugural California Cup This premier day of racing exclusively for California-breds will Yearling Sale, co-sponsored by the California Thoroughbred Breeders offer 10 stakes races worth $1,000,000.