Hollywood Derby is ‘opportune time’ to try California
Chrome on turf
Trainer Art Sherman made his way to the racing secretary’s office in the Del
Mar stable area Wednesday morning with a purpose in mind.
Nominations for the final nine stakes of the Bing Crosby season were closing
on Thursday and Sherman, 77, had a horse of such import to nominate that he
didn’t want to risk missing the deadline.
That would be California Chrome, whom he would nominate for the Hollywood
Derby and Native Diver Handicap on November 29 in what figures to be the
Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner’s final race of 2014.
The Hollywood Derby is a $300,000, Grade 1 event for three-year-olds at 1 1/8
miles on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. The Native Diver is a $200,000, Grade 3
event, also at 1 1/8 miles, on the Polytrack main course.
Del Mar Executive Vice President of Racing Tom Robbins and Racing Secretary
David Jerkens, whose office Sherman stepped into, confessed to being as
surprised as most of the racing world at the development.
“Did not see it coming,” Robbins said Thursday morning. Their reaction:
“Glee,” Jerkens said.
“To have a Kentucky Derby (and Preakness) winner come to the Del Mar fall
meeting is huge,” Robbins said. “Now we keep our fingers crossed for the next
two weeks and hope it all works out.”
“Definitely a pleasant surprise,” Jerkens added.
The Hollywood Derby would be the first grass race for California Chrome. The
race’s Grade 1 status, the purse and California Chrome’s current state of
readiness following a third-place finish to Bayern in the $5 million Breeders’
Cup Classic, beaten only a neck, were all factors in Sherman’s decision to bring
the colt to Del Mar.
Sherman said the plan is to van California Chrome down from Los Alamitos for
a workout on the Del Mar turf course on November 23. That exercise will
determine which race California Chrome will enter. The Derby is the No. 1
option.
“Just the way he moves (running motion) makes me think he could be a good
grass horse,” Sherman said Thursday morning. “I’ve wanted to try him on turf,
this is an opportune time. If he can run on grass it will give me a lot of
options with him next year as a four-year-old.”
More than a grass test, Derby success could have an influence on the 2014
Horse of the Year award. California Chrome is one of a few major candidates.
“If he wins it, maybe he could be Horse of the Year,” Sherman said Wednesday.
“It could help. I don’t know.”
The California-bred son of Lucky Pulpit has eight wins in 15 career starts
and earnings of more than $4 million. California Chrome raced twice at Del Mar
as a two-year-old in the summer of 2013, winning the Graduation Stakes and
finishing sixth in the Del Mar Futurity.
Sherman has indicated plans for 2015 are for California Chrome to run once at
Santa Anita in preparation for the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 28.
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