Trainers ready for fallout if Chrome is upset
Question: If your horse denied California Chrome the Triple Crown, would you feel guilty? Well, getting 10 percent of the Belmont Stakes’ $900,000 winner’s share and celebrating in front of more than 100,000 people does sound like fun, and trainers Billy Gowan and Dallas Stewart are honest men.
According to Equibase.com, Gowan never has hoisted a graded-stakes trophy in his 20-year career, so an upset by Preakness runner-up Ride On Curlin would be glorious. “It’s going to take a really good horse to beat him,” Gowan said. “If I can do it, I won’t be too upset. I’ll be elated, to tell you the truth.”
Ten years ago, trainer Nick Zito, jockey Edgar Prado and owner-breeder Marylou Whitney were apologetic after their 36-1 shot Birdstone ruined Smarty Jones’ bid for immortality. They genuinely had mixed emotions about depriving the sport of its 12th Triple Crown winner.
If Commanding Curve, second in the Kentucky Derby, scores for Stewart, don’t expect the same reaction.
Stewart, a soft-spoken Mississippian, was diplomatic but straightforward. “That’s a tough question to answer,” Stewart said. “Our job is to go out there and win horse races. Sure, if California Chrome does win, it’s great for horse racing. But if we won it, I don’t think it would hurt horse racing.”
Trainer Alan Sherman, 77, returned to his stable in California after the Preakness, leaving his superstar with his son. Alan Sherman has been supervising at Belmont Park until his father arrives on Monday afternoon. Art gets daily updates and watches video of morning gallops.
Belmont Park, Elmont, N.Y.
6:35 p.m. Saturday NBC (Channel 4) 11⁄ miles 2
Palace Malice
“He looks very good now, and I’m happy with the way he’s training,” Art Sherman said. “I just like what I see.
“I can’t believe that a horse can bounce back from these races the way he does.”
Yesterday, hundreds of California Chrome’s fans woke up early to watch him work out, and on a cool, windy morning, he blew them away.
California Chrome breezed a half-mile in 47.69 seconds for jockey Victor Espinoza shortly before 7 a.m. The New York Racing Association timed him at 59.93 seconds for 5 furlongs, and he galloped out 6 furlongs in 1:12.95.
“Off that work, he’s going to be tough to beat,” said Mike Vesce of the Daily Racing Form. “I think we’re going to have a Triple Crown winner, and I didn’t think that before.”
The great unknown is whether California Chrome can handle 11⁄
2 miles, an exhausting distance that none of these 3-year-olds has tried.
He enjoyed trouble-free trips at Churchill Downs and Pimlico, and this time perhaps rival jockeys will gang up on him, as Bailey and Gary Stevens did against Smarty Jones.
Art Sherman, a former rider, knows he can’t prevent an ambush. “He’s going to have a target on his back; that’s just the way it is,” he said. “I’m sure everybody knows you can’t let him have his own way.
“I feel very comfortable coming into this race. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”