California Chrome camp radiating good feelings

ELMONT, N.Y. – The connections of California Chrome who are based in New York have emanated more and more confidence in their colt’s Triple Crown quest with each passing morning that they watch their Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner train.

That confidence has traveled cross-country to California, where California Chrome’s 77-year-old trainer, Art Sherman, has been based for the last 10 days. While overseeing his string at Los Alamitos, Sherman has kept close tabs on what’s been going on at Belmont Park.

He gets daily phone calls at 4 a.m. West Coast time from his son and assistant Alan, and then, later in the day, watches the video of most of California Chrome’s training session, which the New York Racing Association puts on YouTube.

His thoughts?

“I feel more confident coming into this race than I did any race,” Sherman said Thursday afternoon on a national conference call. “He’s coming into the race perfect. I think the horses running against him have to worry about me, not me worry about any of the other horses.”

Sherman, who is due to arrive in New York on Monday, said he can hear the confidence in his son’s voice every morning.

“My son’s all pumped up,” Art Sherman said. “The horse is remarkable. He makes me feel good, he’s training good. I get to see the video . . . I can tell when he’s grabbing a hold of the bit second time around.”

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On Thursday, before galloping a tick over two miles under exercise rider Willie Delgado, California Chrome schooled in the Belmont paddock for the first time since arriving in New York. While many horsemen prefer to school their horses in the afternoon when they’re in the paddock with other horses and there are people milling about, the Shermans prefer a more quiet setting.[bc_video_id:325649:]

“We always school in the morning, just something we do,” Alan Sherman said. “Whether it’s right or wrong, I don’t know – it’s just the way we do it. I just don’t like to interrupt his feeding, his dinner. I’d just as soon do it in the morning.”

There will be more paddock schooling in the days ahead. On Friday, there was to be a visit to the starting gate. Also Friday, Judd Fisher, California Chrome’s blacksmith, was due in on a red-eye flight to equip California Chrome with a new pair of shoes.

California Chrome wears glue-on shoes, but they are put on with nails. This method helps California Chrome from going back on his heels, Art Sherman has said.

On Saturday, California Chrome is scheduled to have a half-mile breeze with regular rider Victor Espinoza up. Art Sherman said he won’t be looking for a fast breeze.

“I think he’ll go a half-mile in 48 and change, open up his lungs a little bit,” he said. “He’ll put out when I run him in the afternoon.”

It was a fairly routine morning for the Belmont Stakes horses on Thursday, with the possible exception of Social Inclusion, who remains just a possibility for the Belmont. Toward the end of his gallop, the polo bandage on his left hind leg came loose. After the exercise rider pulled him up, he jumped off the horse briefly to remove the bandage before Social Inclusion was led off the track by a groom.

Trainer Manny Azpurua said nothing bad happened and noted that the same thing occurred at Aqueduct a few days before the Wood Memorial.

“He’s okay,” Azpurua said. “He came back in good shape.”

Azpurua said he and owner Ron Sanchez would make a decision on which race Social Inclusion would run in following a workout on Saturday. Social Inclusion is also a candidate for the Grade 2, $500,000 Woody Stephens.

Tonalist, the Peter Pan winner, and Ride On Curlin, the Preakness runner-up, both put in strong gallops on Thursday. Tonalist went at a two-minute lick pace for a mile, covering the distance from the six-furlong pole to 1 1/4-mile pole in 2:06.05.

Wood Memorial winner Wicked Strong did not go to the track on Thursday. Trainer Jimmy Jerkens elected to let him “hack around the shed row.”

“He had a really fast gallop [Wednesday],” Jerkens said.

Commanding Curve, the Kentucky Derby runner-up, was scheduled to arrive at Belmont Park around 4:30 p.m. Thursday following a flight from Kentucky and a van ride from MacArthur Airport in Islip, Long Island.