California Chrome back on racetrack

California Chrome, the easy winner of the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes last Saturday, returned to the racetrack for a one-mile jog at Los Alamitos on Wednesday.

“With three days off, he was fired up a little bit,” trainer Art Sherman said.

The 2014 Horse of the Year, California Chrome is the future-book favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Classic here on Nov. 5. Sherman said he intends to take it easy with California Chrome.

“Everything will be moderate,” he said. “We’ll have him come in fresh.”

California Chrome can earn a $1 million bonus with a win in the $6 million BC Classic through a promotion that linked it with the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 20 and the $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes. California Chrome was the easy winner of the Pacific Classic. He won the Awesome Again Stakes by 2 1/4 lengths even though jockey Victor Espinoza took a hold of the horse in the final sixteenth.

Owned by Perry Martin and Taylor Made Farm, California Chrome has won 14 of 25 starts and earned $13,432,650, a record for a North American-based Thoroughbred.