ARCADIA — The California Cup, Santa Anita’s multi-race winter showcase for state-breds, is made for horses like Grand Slam Smile and trainers like Sean McCarthy. That makes it a good thing.
Grand Slam Smile, a super-consistent 5-year-old mare, looms as the star of the Cal Cup on Saturday, when she runs with jockey William Antongeorgi III in the $125,000 Sunshine Millions Filly & Mare Turf Sprint on the downhill course.
McCarthy, an affable 63-year-old, hopes to get his first Cal Cup victory and make it a springboard to a big 2026 for the leader of his 16-horse barn, the targets including a first graded-stakes-level win and the $1 million mark in earnings.
A daughter of Smiling Tiger bred and owned by Larry and Maryanne Williams of Idaho, Grand Slam Smile moved to McCarthy after San Francisco Bay Area trainer Steve Specht retired in December 2024, and has continued to build a remarkable record running mostly against fellow Cal-breds. In 16 starts, she has nine wins and six seconds, and $753,120 in purses. The other race was a third-place finish in her only graded-stakes try.
“She’s all racehorse,” McCarthy said Thursday morning. “She’s very confident, she’s very smart. She’s like a keg of dynamite – it doesn’t take much to get her excited. I think she really loves what she does.
“A horse (challenges) her, she pins her ears, she digs in and tries to beat ’em. It’s just that competitive disposition that they have. Its not that common, honestly.”
Grand Slam Smile’s 2023 Cal Cup Oaks victory was one of her six Cal-bred stakes wins, the past two for McCarthy. She’ll face eight fillies and mares Saturday.
McCarthy, a self-described “fifth-generation Cal-bred” who grew up near Bay Meadows racetrack south of San Francisco, is the kind of trainer who gets squeezed out as the best horses increasingly go to a few famous names. But the level of racing in the Cal Cup attracts a long list of smaller barns.
“When these kind of programs come around, it is great for them,” McCarthy said.
The five-race Cal Cup is losing a potential headliner because 7-year-old Big City Lights, defending champion in the $125,000 Don Valpredo California Cup Sprint, is going to be scratched after injuring a foot by stepping on himself, trainer Richard Mandella said Thursday.
Grand Slam Smile steps into the spotlight. She’s made for it.
DERBY COUNTDOWN
Kentucky Derby qualifying races become more valuable starting with Saturday’s 1-1/16-mile Lecomte Stakes at the New Orleans Fair Grounds, which awards 20, 10, 6, 4 and 2 points to top finishers. Favored are Steve Asmussen-trained Chip Honcho (Paco Lopez riding) and Mike Maker’s Crown the Buckeye (Ricardo Santana Jr.), who chased Chip Honcho in last month’s Gun Runner.
The third round of official future wagering on the May 2 Derby runs today through Sunday. Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Ted Noffey remains the favorite at 6-1 on the morning line, followed by Kentucky Jockey Club winner Further Ado at 10-1, Remsen winner Paladin at 10-1 and dominant Churchill Downs maiden winer Cannoneer at 15-1.
Litmus Test, Bob Baffert’s Los Alamitos Futurity winner, is 20-1, the lowest-priced California-based horse among the 39 individuals offered for betting. So Happy, Mark Glatt’s San Vicente Stakes winner, joins the betting at 75-1.
Glatt said So Happy’s most likely first test around two turns is the 1-1/16-mile San Felipe Stakes on March 7. The 1⅛-mile Santa Anita Derby is April 4.
SAFETY WATCH
The first two racehorse deaths of 2026 in California occurred at Santa Anita. Mo Town Gal, a claiming-level 6-year-old mare, was injured after getting loose from her pony on her way to training Jan. 7. Damazio, a claiming-level 7-year-old gelding, was injured and threw jockey Adrian Escobedo in the second race last Sunday.
This comes after 2025 produced mixed results in California racing’s efforts to increase safety since a spike in deaths to more than 40 in early 2019 put heat on the sport.
By unofficial count based on fatality lists posted by the California Horse Racing Board, the total of 35 horse deaths in racing and training at Santa Anita, Del Mar and Los Alamitos in 2025 was three fewer than in 2024 but equal to the median for the previous five years.
Santa Anita (one death in racing and 11 in training) and Del Mar (four and zero) showed improvement in 2025, but Los Alamitos (13 and six) got worse for the fourth year in a row.
The racing board demanded action by Los Alamitos management after three quarter horses died in separate incidents during the Nov. 23 races. At Wednesday’s board meeting, Los Al executive Orlando Gutierrez told commissioners the track has added veterinarians and a second equine ambulance, restricted joint injections and limited wet-day training. CHRB equine medical director Jeff Blea praised the response as “a step in the right direction.”
In news related to animal welfare, quarter-horse jockey Jose Nicasio agreed to what in effect is a lifetime ban from California racing, according to a ruling posted on the CHRB website on Jan. 8. A top-10 rider at Los Alamitos, Nicasio was found to have been present at non-recognized race meetings, a violation of state racing rules that came to light because of photographs taken by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals members.
SHORTENING UP
Deserving: Trevor Denman will receive the Special Eclipse Award for Career Excellence when thoroughbred racing’s annual championships are revealed at a dinner in Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 22. Denman retired in 2025 after calling races since the 1980s at Santa Anita, Del Mar, Hollywood Park and Fairplex Park. “What a wonderful way to end a 53-year career. I am so honored to receive this award and will treasure it forever,” Denman said in the announcement by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.
Disappointing: Goal Oriented has been retired to stud at Spendthrift Farm, the Lexington, Ky., breeding operation announced Sunday. The Bob Baffert-trained colt, a son of No. 2 North American sire Not This Time, finished his racing career on the upswing with a fast victory in the Malibu Stakes for 3-year-old on Dec. 28 at Santa Anita.
Hopes for revived racing in Northern California were kept alive when the CHRB voted Wednesday to delay until February a a decision on proposed four-week fair meets at Pleasanton (Alameda County), Ferndale (Humboldt County) and a new site in Red Bluff (Tehama County). David Elliott, general counsel for Bernal Park Racing Management Company, told the board the lower-quality competition is needed because northern horsemen trying to compete in Southern California are “getting crushed.” Bernal Park’s will have to polish its dates application after the request submitted in revamped form the day before the board meeting was described by CHRB executive director Scott Chaney as “not a serious proposal.”
Total betting on California races in 2025 was 5% lower than the year before, with daytime handle falling 7% while nighttime handle rose 6%, Chaney told racing board members. Since it was the first year without racing in northern parts of the state, the fact betting fell only 5% “demonstrates the resilience” of the sport here, Chaney said.
Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at X.com/KevinModesti.
