California Chrome to Race Again in 2016

"He’s coming back and he’s going to me which I’m sure he’ll be real happy about,” Art Sherman confirmed Sunday morning from the Del Mar stable area.

 

The “he” of reference is 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner California Chrome, whose recent bone bruise injury had triggered speculation that his racing career might be over.  But Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky purchased the minority ownership share of Steve Coburn early last week and announced Saturday that the California-bred son of Lucky Pulpit, who is recuperating at Taylor Made, would be aimed for a return to racing next year.

 

“I’m elated, I think he could have a heck of a 5-year-old season and I’m looking forward to it,” Sherman, 77, said.

 

California Chrome earned over $4 million last year. The success-from-humble pedigree story of California Chrome and Sherman’s personality charmed racing followers and the general public alike through the Triple Crown series, which ended with a dead-heat for fourth in the Belmont Stakes, and a Breeders’ Cup Classic third-place finish beaten only a neck by Bayern.

 

California Chrome came to Del Mar to make his first start on grass in the Grade I Hollywood Derby on November 30 and that impressive victory was probably the deciding factor in his being voted the Eclipse Award as Horse of the Year.

 

His 2015 campaign began with runner-up finishes in both the San Antonio Invitational at Santa Anita in February and the $10 million Dubai World Cup, accounting for earnings of $2.1 million. But plans to race at Royal Ascot in England last month and in the Arlington Million in Chicago later this month, were scrubbed by injuries.

 

Sherman said California Chrome’s recovery in Kentucky, where he was shipped after the bone bruise was discovered, is likely to take three months. Then he’ll be reunited with Sherman at his base at Los Alamitos from where the Triple Crown campaign was launched.

 

In addition to the Hollywood Derby,  California Chrome raced here twice as a 2-year-old, winning the 2013 Graduation Stakes and finishing a troubled sixth in that year’s Del Mar Futurity.

 

Is another Del Mar appearance in his future.