California Chrome won't return until autumn

ELMONT, N.Y. – Had California Chrome finished off a Triple Crown sweep with a victory in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, he would have had the male 3-year-old championship locked up, and very likely Horse of the Year, too, even with more than six months to go in the calendar year.

Instead, both categories are still in play after California Chrome finished in a dead heat for fourth in the Belmont.

California Chrome obviously has an overwhelming, seemingly insurmountable, lead for champion 3-year-old male, what with three Grade 1 stakes wins, including the first two legs of the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. It would take a Herculean second half of the year from another horse to knock him off that perch, but the door was not slammed shut Saturday.

Tonalist, who won the Belmont, appears to be the only 3-year-old now afforded a chance to make a race of that Eclipse Award division. He did defeat California Chrome the only time they met so far, and if he were to do it again in the fall in a race like the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita – on California Chrome’s favorite track, against California Chrome as well as older horses – after winning a major summer race like the Travers, he could challenge California Chrome for the title.

As for Horse of the Year, precedent has been set in past years for a Triple Crown winner to claim that title even if he fell short against older runners in the fall, most notably Affirmed against older horses Seattle Slew and Exceller in 1978. The loss Saturday by California Chrome very much keeps hope alive for the likes of Wise Dan, the two-time Horse of the Year currently recovering from stomach surgery, and Palace Malice, who ran his 2014 record to 4 for 4 with a stirring victory in the Metropolitan Mile on the Belmont Stakes undercard.

California Chrome left Belmont Park on Sunday morning and flew back to Los Alamitos in Southern California, where he will remain while being treated for the injuries he sustained in the Belmont, trainer Art Sherman said Sunday.

California Chrome sustained a superficial cut to the tendon on his right front leg and a nasty gash to the back of his right front hoof. Once that heals, Sherman said California Chrome would be sent to a farm to relax. He has not had a break from racing or training since making his debut as a 2-year-old in April 2013.

“He’s good, other than having a good chunk of his quarter cut,” Sherman said. “We’ll get that healed up at the barn for two to three weeks, then stop on him for six or seven weeks, give him some pasture time. He needs a rest.”

So, summer racing is out for California Chrome. A fall campaign, with the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 the major goal, is the plan.

“We’ll keep him in California, get him ready for the Breeders’ Cup,” Sherman said. “It’s where he runs his best races. It’s home for us.”

California Chrome was injured at the start of the race when his right front foot was stepped on by the left front foot of Matterhorn. He then raced in traffic for much of the backstretch under jockey Victor Espinoza and did not have the same acceleration in the stretch as he had in his prior three races.

“On the backside, he was in all kinds of trouble,” Sherman said. “Victor was trying to get out, but they kept pushing him down. He had six straight races where he got good trips. That’s part of it. You can’t blame the other jocks. They know he’s the horse to beat. But we’re here, and we’ll fight another day.

“He didn’t have that kick. Something was bugging him. It might have been stinging him. I think deep down, if he didn’t have a few obstacles, he would have been tough.”

Sherman said the Triple Crown trail was “a great ride for me.”

“I’m the same old Art,” he said. “I got up, put my boots on. Except that I did win the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, and I hadn’t done that before.”

Tonalist was making his first start in a Triple Crown race in the Belmont. He had been under consideration for the Derby before illness and a foot injury forced trainer Christophe Clement to bypass the Wood Memorial, New York’s major prep for the Derby.

“He couldn’t make the Wood. Once he couldn’t make the Wood, he couldn’t make the Derby,” Clement said. “Plan B was the Peter Pan and the Belmont.”

Tonalist won the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont on May 10 while making his first start in 2 1/2 months, then parlayed that into a victory in the Belmont. He is lightly raced, with just five starts, and has won three times.

“He was a very immature horse at the start of the year,” Clement said. “As the year has progressed, he’s gotten better. Physically and mentally, I think there’s still more to come. Keep him sound and fit, and that will take care of the rest.”

Clement said Tonalist came out of the Belmont in good condition and would be pointed to major stakes races on dirt the rest of the year, with the Travers at Saratoga being an obvious summer target.

“He’s been trained to be a dirt horse, he’s bred to be a dirt horse, he will remain a dirt horse,” said Clement, whose success with grass runners often overshadows his considerable aptitude with dirt horses.

Tonalist is by Tapit and is out of a mare by Pleasant Colony.

“I don’t think he has to go a mile and a half,” Clement said, referring to the Belmont distance, “but he has to go long. He can be competitive at a mile and an eighth and a mile and a quarter.”

The Jim Dandy Stakes on July 26 at Saratoga is at 1 1/8 miles. The Travers on Aug. 23 at Saratoga is at 1 1/4 miles.

The Belmont was the first Triple Crown race win for Clement, a native of France who has been training in the United States since 1991.

“This was really, really meaningful to me,” he said Sunday.

Tonalist earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 100 for his Belmont victory, in which he defeated Commissioner by a head, with Medal Count a length farther back in third. California Chrome and Wicked Strong were another three-quarters of a length back in fourth.

“They don’t give you the race,” Clement said. “He had to fight pretty hard to do it.”

Commissioner, who led until deep stretch, will seek a rematch with Tonalist in the Travers, his next major goal, trainer Todd Pletcher said.

Pletcher said the Jim Dandy or the Haskell at Monmouth on July 27 could be used as a prep to the Travers.

Commissioner “pulled up well,” said Pletcher, who said Commissioner would get a two-week freshening at the Kentucky farm of his owner and breeder, WinStar Farm, before resuming serious training at the end of the month.

Dale Romans, the trainer of Medal Count, said the Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 24 was his major summer goal.

– additional reporting by David Grening