California Chrome returns to Los Alamitos base

CYPRESS, Calif. – After stops in Dubai, England, Illinois, and Kentucky, California Chrome returned to trainer Art Sherman’s stable at Los Alamitos on Tuesday for the first time in nearly seven months.

He will not be going far for a while.

On Wednesday, California Chrome was tack-walked at Sherman’s barn, his first day of exercise designed to have him ready for a return to racing in early 2016. Sherman has the San Pasqual Handicap at Santa Anita on Jan. 9 as an early target.

“We’re kind of looking that way,” he said.

On Wednesday, Sherman said he was glad to have the 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner back in his barn and delighted to see that California Chrome had gained weight in recent months. Sherman was not pleased with California Chrome’s condition during the summer, when the colt was away from his stable.

“Did you see how stout he looked?” Sherman said. “What a difference from when he came back from England. He’s happy to be here.”

It’s been an eventful year for California Chrome – on and off the track.

The 2014 Horse of the Year, California Chrome finished second in the $10 million Dubai World Cup in March, missed races at Royal Ascot in June and Arlington Park in August, and spent almost 90 days on vacation at Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky. During much of the spring, California Chrome was based in Newmarket, England, with trainer Rae Guest.

A start in the Arlington Million in August was abandoned when California Chrome was diagnosed with bruising in a cannon bone a month before the race. The injury led to his rest in Kentucky. During vacation, California Chrome “gained about 150 pounds and did what he wanted,” said Frank Taylor, who accompanied the colt on Tuesday’s flight.

Taylor Made purchased breeder and co-owner Steve Coburn’s share in California Chrome during the summer and will be a minority owner with breeder and co-owner Perry Martin. California Chrome has won 9 of 18 starts and earned $6,322,650.

A return trip to the Middle East for the Dubai World Cup is a goal for the spring. For now, California Chrome will be based at Los Alamitos in a special stall at Sherman’s stable.

Last week, a Los Alamitos maintenance crew knocked down a concrete and cinder block wall separating two conventional-sized stalls at Sherman’s barn. When California Chrome arrived on Tuesday, his accommodations were more like the size of a suite than a typical backstretch stall.

“It took a jackhammer to knock the wall down,” Sherman said.