California Chrome to resume training this weekend

CYPRESS, Calif. – California Chrome, second in the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 28, is scheduled to resume training this weekend in Newmarket, England, in advance of a spring campaign in that country.

Alan Sherman, assistant to his father, trainer Art Sherman, said California Chrome will be in light training with trainer Rae Guest before starting more extensive exercise next week. The main racing goal is the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf June 17 at Royal Ascot, with a possible start in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes at a straightaway mile May 16 at Newbury Racecourse.

The winner of the Eclipse Award as the 2014 Horse of the Year, California Chrome will train at Guest’s facility this weekend before moving to the more expansive Newmarket training facilities next week, Alan Sherman said.

Sherman has been in contact with Guest and plans to travel to England in early May to watch California Chrome train. Sherman and Guest have been in contact via text messaging and e-mail in recent days.

Sherman said it is unclear whether California Chrome will run in the Lockinge or wait for Royal Ascot. The colt was sent to England at the insistence of majority owner Perry Martin, who bred California Chrome with co-owner Steve Coburn.

“We’ll have to see how it goes and how he trains up to it,” Sherman said of the Lockinge Stakes. “Perry will have the last say. I think we might wait for Royal Ascot.”