California Chrome points to San Antonio for 2015 debut

California Chrome resumed training at Los Alamitos on Thursday, five days after the 2014 Kentucky Derby winner got his fourth Grade 1 win of the year in the $300,000 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar, the eighth stakes win of his career.

Trainer Art Sherman has his sights set on a ninth stakes win. Sherman said Thursday that California Chrome is likely to make his 2015 debut in the $500,000 San Antonio Stakes for older horses over 1 1/8 miles on dirt at Santa Anita on Feb. 7.

“We’ll probably go in the San Antonio,” Sherman said.

The race could lead to a start in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap on March 7 or the $10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates on March 28. Sherman said he hopes California Chrome remains at home for the Big Cap, but that depends on conversations with co-owners and breeders Steve Coburn and Perry Martin.

“I’d like to stay here, but I don’t know how that will go,” he said.

Santa Anita has revamped its stakes schedule for 4-year-olds this year, eliminating the Grade 2 Strub Stakes, which was run in January over 1 1/16 miles last year. In past years, the Strub would have been an option for California Chrome. The Strub was run in early February for decades as a prep for the Big Cap and was a last chance for 4-year-olds to race within their own age group.

As a result of the change, horses such as California Chrome are essentially forced into the San Antonio to prep for the Big Cap in a stakes. The San Antonio purse has been increased from $300,000 in 2014.

The San Antonio field may include two other major 3-year-olds of 2014 – Bayern, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 1, and Shared Belief, the champion 2-year-old male of 2013.

Trainer Bob Baffert said in a text message Thursday that it was “too early” to pick a comeback race for Bayern, who has resumed exercise at Santa Anita.

Shared Belief, who finished a troubled fourth in the BC Classic after getting bumped solidly by Bayern shortly after the start, is a candidate for the $300,000 Malibu Stakes over seven furlongs at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, the opening day of the track’s winter-spring meeting. On Thursday at Golden Gate Fields, Shared Belief worked five furlongs in 1:01.80, his third workout since the BC Classic.

California Chrome jogged Thursday, the first day the Los Alamitos track was opened after rain led to the closure of the track Tuesday and Wednesday. The Hollywood Derby was California Chrome’s first start on turf. Earlier this year, he won three consecutive Grade 1 races – the Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby, and Preakness Stakes.