California Chrome to have 'maintenance breezes' ahead of Dubai World Cup

CYPRESS, Calif. – In the hours after California Chrome won a $150,000 handicap at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai on Thursday, the popular horse had a ravenous appetite.

“He ate up everything,” trainer Art Sherman said on Saturday. “Frank Taylor saw him at 1 a.m. after the race. He said he tried to bite him.”

The Taylor family’s Taylor Made Farm co-owns California Chrome with Perry Martin. They were in attendance along with Sherman at Meydan on Thursday to watch California Chrome win a handicap at 1 1/4 miles, a prep race for the $10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan on March 26.

Sherman was back at his stable at Los Alamitos on Saturday morning, having traveled home on Friday. Sherman was left with the impression that California Chrome will benefit immensely from the prep race and will not need extensive training through March.

Last year, California Chrome finished second in the $500,900 San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita in early February and did not have another race before finishing second to Prince Bishop in the Dubai World Cup last March.

“This is what I wanted,” Sherman said. “Now, I don’t have to train him hard. We can give him maintenance breezes and keep him happy. We won’t breeze him fast. With the [prep] race at a mile and a quarter, you don’t have to train him too much.”

Sherman traveled to Dubai at the beginning of the week. California Chrome was shipped to Dubai in late January, less than two weeks after winning his 2016 debut in the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 9. Alan Sherman, Art’s son and assistant, has been in Dubai with California Chrome since late January along with exercise rider Dihigi Gladney and groom Raul Rodriguez.

Art Sherman noticed a change in California Chrome, who has won 11 of 20 starts and earned $6,352,650.

“I thought he’d grown,” he said. “The horse has gotten bigger. He’s retained his weight. You don’t notice that until you don’t see him. He’s really coming into himself.”

The Dubai World Cup will be a test. The list of rivals is led by Frosted, the winner of the Pennsylvania Derby last September and a Group 2 race at Meydan earlier this month. Other American-based horses expected to start are Hoppertunity, who won the San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 6, and Mshawish, the winner of the Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 6.

Sherman said California Chrome will be ready.

“I wouldn’t trade places,” he said.

After the Dubai World Cup, California Chrome will return to the United States. Sherman said it is unclear whether the 5-year-old will be given a month’s rest at Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky or return directly to Sherman’s stable at Los Alamitos.