Early Season Showdown Looms: California Chrome and Dortmund
You expect the top horses to represent in America’s biggest races, but when more than one of them shows up for a race of less prestige, it’s bonus time for fans from coast to coast. Such was the case in February of 2015, when California Chrome and Shared Belief met for an early season showdown in the San Antonio Stakes. The race lived up to the hype, and the Grade 2 affair, won by the latter, became one of the most talked about races of the year. Buckle up racefans, we could be looking at another unexpected big one, when the $200,000 San Pasqual is run at Santa Anita on Saturday, January 9.
The main participants 13 days from now would be two of the biggest stars on the United States racing landscape in California Chrome and Dortmund. As of now, it looks like both of them are on schedule to make the 8 ½ furlong, Grade 2 their initial start of 2016. For the 2014 Horse of the Year, it would be his first start in more than nine months, since finishing second in the world’s richest race, the Dubai World Cup. When I talked with his trainer, Art Sherman, last week, he told me that the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner was indeed San Pasqual bound, before heading over for a pair of races in Dubai.
Despite the layoff, the soon to be five-year-old looks to be getting sharp for his veteran conditioner. After putting on some flesh during a rest at Taylor Made Farm, he’s had seven workouts since November 14, with each looking more impressive than the last. Take a look at the copper colored chestnut striding out this morning at Los Alamitos...
As for Dortmund, the three-year-old son of Big Brown has returned from a layoff to dominate in a pair of autumn stakes at Santa Anita and Del Mar. In both the Big Bear Stakes, and the Grade 3 Native Diver Handicap, the big chestnut won easy, looking like a more experienced, and more mature colt than the version that set all the pace on the first Saturday in May, before fading to third. Having passed on the seven furlong Malibu, the two-turn San Pasqual seems to be a perfect next race for the six-time stakes winner.
The winner of 8-of-10 lifetime suffered his only defeats at the hands of American Pharoah in the first two legs of the Triple Crown, but with his famous stablemate no longer around, he looks ready and able to make his own run at the title of the best horse in America. To do so, though, he must defeat a horse of the stature of California Chrome.
In 2014, California Chrome won Santa Anita Derby by 5 ½ lengths. In 2015, Dortmund won the same Grade 1 Kentucky Derby prep by 4 ¼ lengths. Nine days into January, the two stars appear to be on schedule for a showdown that we can all get excited about. Let’s get it on!