ARCADIA, Calif. – The first of five stakes Saturday at Santa Anita took a hit with news that Big City Lights will be scratched from the $125,000 Don Valpredo California Cup Sprint.
Big City Lights, who won the Cal Cup Sprint by more than seven lengths a year ago, was the 2-1 second choice behind 9-5 program favorite Man O Rose. The defection reduces the six-furlong Cal Cup Sprint to just four runners.
Richard Mandella trains Big City Lights, a five-time stakes winner whose recent workouts hinted he would be a force. Instead of racing on Saturday, the 7-year-old will be recovering from an untimely setback.
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“He grabbed a quarter pretty bad,” Mandella said Friday. “He just stepped on himself. He tore a piece of skin off his foot.”
When a horse grabs a quarter, it means they reach up with a hind foot and step on the back of a front foot. That is exactly what happened this week while Big City Lights was training.
The setback is not serious, but it interrupts training and temporarily precludes racing. Mandella already scouted the next potential start for Big City Lights. “He’ll probably make the Palos Verdes,” the trainer said. The six-furlong, $100,000 Palos Verdes is Feb. 15. Big City Lights won the Palos Verdes in 2024.
Big City Lights has won seven races and $598,920 from 15 starts for owner William Peeples. The defection is the latest misfortune for the veteran sprinter. He broke slowly and lost his chance in both recent sprint stakes at Del Mar, finishing eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and ninth in the Stormy Liberal on turf.
The scratch of Big City Lights reduces the Cal Cup Sprint field to four runners, the same number that contested the 2025 edition that Big City Lights crushed.
In the revised field, multiple stakes winner Man O Rose is expected to defeat Grade 1-placed Speedy Wilson and recently stakes-placed Book Smart and Drop Um. The Cal Cup Sprint is race 2 on Saturday; the stakes fields are bigger later on the card.
All nine races Saturday are for Cal-breds. Race 5, the Unusual Heat Turf Classic, is a route for older led by Vodka Vodka. Race 7 is the Leigh Ann Howard California Cup Oaks, a turf mile for 3-year-old fillies with Cashed and Cee Drew. Race 8 is the California Chrome Cal Cup Derby, a dirt route for 3-year-olds that includes stakes winners Sammy Davis and Smoovin Saturday. John Metcalfe, a maiden, is poised for his first career win.
The last of nine races Saturday is the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Sprint, a hillside stakes in which Grand Slam Smile and Sneaker renew their rivalry.
Man O Rose is the sharpest in the Cal Cup Sprint. The 10-for-17 gelding will enter with a three-race Cal-bred stakes win streak for trainer Jeff Mullins and owner-breeder Bruce Zietz, a retired physician who also dabbles in bloodstock.
Although he made only three starts in 2025, Man O Rose made the most of them. He won the E.B. Johnston Stakes, a dirt route at Los Alamitos; the California Flag Handicap, a hillside turf sprint at Santa Anita; and The Chosen Vron Stakes, a dirt sprint at Del Mar. Man O Rose can do it all.
Man O Rose is the product of a timely transaction in 2001. Zietz purchased the mare Cantina in foal to Evansville Slew for $5,500 at auction. The resulting foal was Roi Charmant, who won eight races and $337,678 from 27 starts.
Cantina also produced Cantina’s Rose, who won two races and became a broodmare for Zietz. Cantina’s Rose produced Kathleen Rose, who won five races for Zietz and also became a broodmare. The second runner produced by Kathleen Rose is Man O Rose, by Stanford.
Zietz recalls seeing Man O Rose before his career began.
“He was the dominant horse in the pasture, he was the alpha,” Zietz said. “And he’s just a runner.”
Since he transferred to the Mullins stable for his second start, Man O Rose has not looked back. His $497,965 earnings total is the highest by a Stanford progeny. His rider is Edwin Maldonado.
From the outside post, Man O Rose figures to press the pace in the clear. It is the perfect scenario for Man O Rose, who runs best outside rivals. The only knock on Man O Rose is price.
Man O Rose is likely to flirt with even-money as he tries to extend the string of winning favorites in the Cal Cup Sprint. Favorites won the race the past four years.
The defection of Big City Lights softens the pace and benefits Book Smart and Drop Um. Both are front-runners/pace-pressers with solid recent form. Book Smart missed by a half-length last out in the Stormy Liberal; Drop Um finished second to Man O Rose in The Chosen Vron.
Three of the four Cal Cup Sprint runners are front-runners or pressers, which may or may not be enough to benefit late-runner Speedy Wilson, trained by Phil D’Amato. Speedy Wilson finished third in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes last out. He needs pace to run at.
“The horses in there are all speed on speed, so who knows? It could set up for someone sitting back there,” D’Amato said prior to the draw. Since then, the pace scenario lightened.
D’Amato acknowledged six furlongs is shorter than Speedy Wilson prefers. Speedy Wilson, a Tough Sunday colt owned and bred by Nick Alexander, has won four races and $330,488 from nine starts. Armando Ayuso is his rider.
-- additional reporting by Steve Andersen
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