California Cup shapes up as a ‘family’ affair at Santa Anita

This is the week trainer, owner and breeder Barry Abrams gets to beam almost as much as when he watches his beloved Lakers play basketball.

The California Cup, featuring five stakes races for California-bred horses, takes place Saturday at Santa Anita, and it has become an annual family reunion of sorts, allowing the many offspring of Unusual Heat, a prolific sire in Abrams’ barn, to take center stage.

Nine sons and daughters of Unusual Heat are entered on the nine-race card, including five representatives in the California Cup.

Adding to the weekend of intrigue, Unusual Suspect, a son of Unusual Heat partly owned by Abrams, is scheduled to run Monday in the Melbourne Cup in Australia.

“It’s an exciting week,” said Abrams, who has returned to training after recovering from summer throat cancer surgery.

Another figure heavily invested in how Unusual Heat offspring perform this week is jockey Joe Talamo. He rides Mensa Heat in the California Cup Sprint, Mega Heat in the Classic and Unveiled Heat in the Juvenile. All are sons of Unusual Heat.

Unusual Heat is 21 years old, and it cost $20,000 for one breeding session this year. The fee may go up in 2012 based on what happens this weekend, and Unusual Heat has been receiving added interest because the best horse he has sired, Acclamation, has emerged as a horse-of-the-year candidate after four Grade I victories.

The $175,000 Classic has been switched to 11/8 miles on the turf in the 22nd year of the California Cup. Soul Candy, a 5-year-old gelding who won last year’s Classic at Hollywood Park on the Cushion Track, will try to become the first back-to-back winner.

The most competitive of the five California Cup races could be the $100,000 Sprint, at six furlongs, featuring veterans M One Rifle, Bob Black Jack and Cost Of Freedom.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com