California Chrome ready for relaunch

BENSALEM, Pa. – The curiosity seekers were not out in full force like they were a decade ago, the last time a Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner roamed the backside at Parx. Still, a few dozen people, cell-phone cameras at the ready, lined the rails Wednesday morning as California Chrome walked onto the track shortly after 8:30 a.m. on a cloudless, comfortable late-summer day.

As the first Kentucky Derby winner to be stabled here since Smarty Jones in 2004, California Chrome was indeed a sight to behold Wednesday morning, though he simply went out for a jog on his first full day in town. California Chrome, following a cross-country flight from Southern California, arrived late Tuesday afternoon for Saturday’s $1 million Pennsylvania Derby, which will be the colt’s first start since he finished in a dead heat for fourth in the Belmont Stakes on June 7.

California Chrome’s chestnut coat glistened from the bright morning sun, though he didn’t look much bigger than he had three months ago at Belmont Park. On a national conference call Tuesday, Art Sherman, California Chrome’s trainer, said his colt had put on 75 pounds since then. On Wednesday, Art’s son and assistant, Alan Sherman, said that California Chrome weighed the same as during the Triple Crown.

Two weeks after the Belmont, California Chrome went to Harris Farms in Coalinga, Calif., where he was raised, and spent a month there before returning to the Sherman’s stable at Los Alamitos on July 17.

“He hasn’t changed a whole lot,” Alan Sherman said Wednesday morning at Parx. “He got a little bit heavier when he came in from the farm. I think right now his weight is about perfect; about the same as it was throughout the Triple Crown races.”

Before the Belmont, California Chrome had defeated – in some cases dominated – all the 3-year-olds he had faced. One he has yet to face is the undefeated Shared Belief, last year’s 2-year-old champion male, who wasn’t physically ready for the Triple Crown series. While California Chrome recovered from his Triple Crown campaign – as well as the right front foot he injured in the Belmont – Shared Belief recorded impressive victories in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Derby and Grade 1 Pacific Classic. Shared Belief is expected to run next in the Grade 1, $300,000 Awesome Again at Santa Anita on Sept. 27.

It is widely believed that a California Chrome-Shared Belief meeting in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 could decide the 3-year-old championship as well as Horse of the Year.

“Shared Belief is a great horse, looking forward to running against him,” Alan Sherman said Wednesday. “Part of the reason why we’re here is we didn’t want to run against him right now at this point. We figured we’d get a race in him and meet him in the Breeders’ Cup.”

On Wednesday, during a time reserved for horses running in the Pennsylvania Derby and Grade 1 Cotillion for 3-year-old fillies, California Chrome jogged once around the one-mile Parx oval, tugging at exercise rider Willie Delgado early before expressing curiosity at a riderless horse, Cotillion contender Little Alexis, who had dumped her rider, Jackie Davis, near the quarter pole.

“It didn’t affect him,” Delgado said. “He went by and was like ‘What are you doing on the ground?’ He’s got character, that horse.”

Though it was just a jog, Delgado believes California Chrome likes the Parx surface.

“At Churchill he was stabby, here he was floating almost like he was on feathers,” Delgado said. “He handled it very well.”

California Chrome was scheduled to school in the paddock and gallop at Parx on Thursday, and visit the starting gate and gallop Friday. Art Sherman believes his horse is ready.

“In a perfect world we would have gotten a couple more works in him,” he said. “But he couldn’t have lost that much fitness from the spring. He’s probably fitter than I think he is.”

Alan Sherman said he was not thrilled with California Chrome having to break from the rail in the 1 1/8-mile Pennsylvania Derby, but added: “You just got to deal with it. There’s nothing we can do about it. All I care about is him getting a clean trip.”