From Santa Anita Publicity
ARCADIA, Calif. (Jan. 27, 2016) – Northern based defending champion Alert Bay heads a wide open field of 12 California bred or sired, 4-year-olds and up, in Saturday’s $250,000 California Cup Turf Classic, presented by City National Bank, for Golden State Series eligibles going 1 1/8 miles on the Santa Anita turf course.
Bred in California by Thomas Newton Bell and Ross John McLeod, Alert Bay will once again ship in from Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley, CA in hopes of winning the Turf Classic for the second year in-a-row. Since joining the barn of Blaine Wright in November, 2014 Alert Bay has gone on to win the Grade II Mathis Brothers Turf Mile on Opening Day of Santa Anita’s Winter Meet Dec. 26 in 2014, the Cal Cup Turf Classic by a neck over returning rival Boozer Jan. 24, 2015 and the Grade II City of Hope (Turf) Mile, Sept. 27.
Alert Bay, who boasts the highest-ever Beyer Speed Figure in this group with a 105 from his City of Hope Mile win hopes to rebound from his most recent turf attempts. Seventh in the Grade II Seabiscuit Handicap at Del Mar on Nov. 27 and sixth in the Grade III Daytona here on Dec. 26, Alert Bay will stretch back out over a turf course that he seems to excel over.
The 5-year-old gelding by City Zip out of the Dushyantor mare Hickory, is owned by Peter Redekop B. C., Ltd and will be ridden by Martin Garcia. Alert Bay is 6-4-0-1 over Santa Anita’s turf course and is 22-11-4-2 overall with earnings of $980,735.
The complete field for the California Cup Turf Classic, to be run as the 9th race on a 10-race card, with jockeys and weights in post position order: Tamarando, Edwin Maldonado, 121; G.G. Ryder, Santiago Gonzalez, 126; Unusually Green, Joe Talamo, 119; Image of Joplin, Agapito Delgadillo, 121; Alert Bay, Martin Garcia, 126; Grazen Sky, Tyler Baze, 124; What a View, Kent Desormeaux, 121; Soi Phet, Alonso Quinonez, 121; Somethings Unusual, Iggy Puglisi, 124; Poshsky, Flavien Prat, 126; Boozer, Gary Stevens, 121; Awesome Return, Rafael Bejarano, 121. Also Eligible: Cowboy, Jose Varenzuela, 119.