Chase the Chaos looking to make splash
They say a good racehorse can come from anywhere, and Chase the Chaos can emphasize that point in the $100,000 El Camino Real Derby on Saturday at Golden Gate Fields.
The 3-year-old Pennsylvaniabred gelding sold for just $10,000 as a weanling in 2020 and began his racing career at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn. Chase the Chaos ran second in his sprint debut on dirt and won a 1-mile maiden race on grass, prompting co-owner Bill Dory to send him to Golden Gate Fields and trainer Ed Moger Jr.
“I’ve trained for Bill for a long time, and they wanted to race the horse in California,” Moger said. “I watched the previous race and I loved the way he ran. The horse could have ended up in Phoenix (at Turf Paradise), but they thought he was a good horse.”
Golden Gate Fields is higher in the national pecking order than Canterbury Park, so despite Chase the Chaos’ two good races, he was dismissed at 51-1 in the betting when he made his Golden Gate Fields debut with a third-place finish in the 6-furlong Golden Nugget Stakes on Nov. 12.
Chase the Chaos was even more lightly regarded in the 1mile Gold Rush Stakes on Dec. 3 when he went off at 65-1, but he rallied strongly to finish second.
The bettors finally caught up when Chase the Chaos ran in a 1-mile allowance race on Dec. 30, and he powered to a 7½-length victory as the even-money favorite in perhaps the most visually impressive performance of the Golden Gate Fields season.
“He didn’t surprise me at all,” Moger said. “It set up really well because they were flying up front and I knew he was going to catch them. He’s a big, goodlooking horse, and he’s doing great. He trains like a stakes horse, and most young horses get better with more racing.”
Now comes the 11⁄8-mile El Camino Real Derby, and Chase the Chaos is the 3-1 second choice in the morning line against seven opponents.
Passarando, who finished second in the Golden Nugget and won the Gold Rush for trainer Steve Specht, is the 2-1 favorite. Controversial trainer Bob Baffert has sent two recent maiden winners from Santa Anita: Gilmore (4-1) and Nullarbor (6-1). Also running is Harcyn (5-1), who has dominated two sprints at Golden Gate Fields for trainer Steve Sherman.
“It’s not easy,” Moger said. “Sherman’s horse, you don’t know how good he is, Baffert’s two look good, and Specht’s horse has beaten me two-fortwo. We’ll find out a lot about our horse, because if he wins he will have beaten somebody.”
The El Camino Real Derby offers 20 qualifying points toward the Kentucky Derby (split up 104-3-2-1 for the first five finishers), although Baffert’s horses aren’t eligible because of his suspension from Churchill Downs. The winner gets an automatic berth in the Preakness Stakes, which Rombauer parlayed into a Preakness victory in 2021.