California Chrome to skip Lockinge Stakes

California Chrome, the 2014 Horse of the Year, will miss an expected start in the $535,500 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury Racecourse in England in May and be trained for the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, trainer Art Sherman said on Tuesday.

California Chrome was second to Prince Bishop in the $10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates on March 28 in his most recent start. He was sent to trainer Rae Guest’s stable in Newmarket, England, in the week following that race.

Sherman has been in contact with Guest. The decision was made this week that California Chrome had not sufficiently recovered from the Dubai race to start in what is likely to be a strong running of the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes at a mile May 16.

“It was a little too quick back,” Sherman said. “He hasn’t put the weight on, and he’s a little light in the frame. He’s passing that one now, and they’ll run him in Royal Ascot.”

Sherman said that Guest “is glad that we’re passing on that race. We don’t think he’s as sharp as he could be a month from now.”

California Chrome was a 5-1 joint favorite in the future book for the Lockinge Stakes with some British bookmakers along with Karakontie, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita last November.

For the $803,250 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf, California Chrome is 12-1 in the future book with British bookmakers. Free Eagle, third in the Champion Stakes at Ascot last October, is the current 4-1 favorite.

“It will still be a tough assignment to go cold turkey in that race,” Sherman said.

The 4-year-old California Chrome was sent to England for a spring campaign at the insistence of majority owner Perry Martin. A California-bred, California Chrome is co-owned by Martin and Steve Coburn, who bred the colt.

California Chrome has won 9 of 18 starts and $6,322,650. In 2014, he won three consecutive Grade 1 races – the Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.