California Chrome arrives at Arlington to prep for Million

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The last Kentucky Derby winner to race at Arlington was Unbridled, who, the year after winning the 1990 Derby, won an allowance race here in 1991. But Arlington is the plan for 2014 Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome, who arrived in Chicago on Monday after shipping from England by way of Amsterdam.

California Chrome is stabled in the United States Department of Agriculture quarantine barn on the Arlington backstretch for now, but will move into the regular stables once clearing quarantine. His connections plan to race him Aug. 15 in the Arlington Million.

Waiting for California Chrome at Arlington were his groom, Raul Rodriguez, and exercise rider Anna Wells. Assistant trainer Alan Sherman will travel from California when California Chrome is ready for his first Arlington workout, which could come sometime next week, according to trainer Art Sherman.

California Chrome has been based in England since early April but hasn’t started since he finished second March 28 in the Dubai World Cup. Majority owner Perry Martin decided in Dubai to send California Chrome on to the Newmarket yard of trainer Rae Guest with an eye toward two starts, the May 16 Lockinge Stakes and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes last month at Royal Ascot, but California Chrome made neither race. California Chrome still was acclimating to his new environment and wasn’t ready for the Lockinge, and two days before the Prince of Wales’s he was diagnosed with a hoof problem.

The hoof, Sherman said, has since improved, though California Chrome is wearing a protective bar shoe. “They’ve been jogging him, so it must be doing better,” Sherman said.

California Chrome won’t train at Arlington until Friday at the earliest, and could be on a tight schedule to make the Million. At most, California Chrome could get in five timed workouts before the race, but he has missed training with the foot issue, and would be making his first start in 4 1/2 months going 1 1/4 miles on turf, a surface over which he has raced only once, winning the Hollywood Derby last year.