Chrome Back Home

California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit), 2014's Horse of the Year off the strength of a campaign that included wins in the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S,. makes his much-anticipated 5-year-old debut after an abbreviated 2015 season. A clear-cut second to ill-fated Shared Belief (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the GII San Antonio Invitational S. last February, the Art Sherman trainee was second in the G1 Dubai World Cup in March. Subsequently sent to Rae Guest's yard at Newmarket to train towards an appearance at Royal Ascot, he was forced to miss his intended start there and then was ruled out of the GI Arlington Million due to bone bruising. Taylor Made Farm then acquired Steve and Carolyn Coburn's interest in California Chrome, and he rehabbed at that Kentucky nursery before returning to California, where he most recently blazed six furlongs in a bullet 1:10 flat over this strip before the first race Jan. 2. “He's the best he's ever been since I've had him,” Sherman said after that drill. “He looks ready to me… If he has a good trip [in the San Pasqual], he'll be tough to beat. He hasn't run in nine months and there's nothing like a having a race, but working like this in front of the public is the next-best thing.” If the heavy favorite gets beat, it will most likely come at the hooves of Hoppertunity (Any Given Saturday), who won this race last year after annexing the GI Clark H. that November. He was winless in eight subsequent tries in 2015, but never worse than fourth, including a nose second to Hard Aces (Hard Spun) in the GI Gold Cup at Santa Anita June 27. The Bob Baffert pupil closed out last season with a trio of runner-up efforts–in the local GI Awesome Again S. Sept. 26; the GII Fayette S. at Keeneland Oct. 30; and to Effinex (Mineshaft) when attempting a Clark title defense Nov. 27. Hard Aces finished well-beaten sixths in each of his next three tries after upsetting the Gold Cup. He has been off since the GI Breeders' Cup Classic on Halloween.