Whether California Chrome wins the
Breeders’ Cup Classic or
not remains to be seen, but one thing for sure: for the first time in seven
races, he won’t be favored.
The Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner
has been favored in his last six starts, four times at odds-on. But coming off
two straight out-of-the money losses almost guarantees that won’t happen when he runs in the
1 1/4-mile Classic on November 1 at
Santa Anita Park, a race that could
determine Horse of the Year as well as male three-year-old champion of 2014.
After a grueling Triple Crown run that had the eyes the of
world focused on California Chrome this spring, Art Sherman agrees that the
pressure is off for the Classic.
“Oh, yeah,” the trainer said. “He’ll be five, six to one in that race. He’s
been even-money every time he’s run every place else.”
That’s not to say Sherman doesn’t expect the
California-bred son of Lucky Pulpit to rebound.
“He’ll work the next two Saturdays and ship to Santa Anita
to school a week before the race,” Sherman explained. “I think he’s excellent right
now.”
Asked if he was as good as he was before his 5 1/4-length romp in the Santa Anita Derby last April,
Sherman replided, “He’s doing good. He was sharp back then because he’d been running
(having previously won the King Glorious and the California Cup Derby by a
combined margin of nearly 12 lengths, followed by a 7 1/4-length score in the San Felipe).
Owned and bred by Steve Coburn and Perry Martin, California
Chrome finished sixth in the Pennsylvania Derby on September 20, his first race
since his dead-heat for fourth in the June 7
Belmont Stakes.
“I think he’ll be awful tough in the Breeders’ Cup,”
Sherman stated. “I think he’s going to run big. In the Pennsylvania Derby, he
had no place to go. They were running him up a horse’s butt. You can’t run a
horse like that.”
Asked if the Breeders’ Cup Classic might be California
Chrome’s last race, with life as a stallion in the offing for 2015, Sherman
shrugged.
“I just don’t know what the future is for the horse. It’s up to the owners,”
he said. “I kind of don’t know for sure.”
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