Column: Don’t forget about California Chrome in Breeders’ Cup Classic

The scenarios for success in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, a $5-million race at Santa Anita that will create legacies and define history, are as complicated as a Rubik’s Cube.

Fourteen horses will start. Thirteen will lose. Millions will be wagered.

The favorite is unbeaten Shared Belief. Seven races, seven victories. The morning line oddsmaker has him at 9-5. That means you have to bet a lot to make a lot.

Many track “insiders� and “wise guys� will do their best to rationalize a bet on the longer-odds horses. That’s called “getting value.�

In that category will be Tonalist, a 5-1 choice and this year’s Belmont Stakes winner. Also, Bayern at 6-1 and the winner of the Sept. 20 Pennsylvania Derby, as well as the prestigious Haskell at Monmouth Park in July. Local gamblers might go that way because they know well the success of Bayern’s trainer Bob Baffert in big races.

Or, they could take a real stab with 20-1 Candy Boy, also trained by a local veteran, John Sadler. He has had consistent success over the years at getting horses to the big events. Less so at getting them across the finish line first.

Cigar Street is ridden by veteran John Velazquez and owned by NBA player Rashard Lewis and his friend, Jake Ballis. His odds, before the gamblers start moving the numbers on race day, are 12-1.

There is also Toast Of New York, a British horse whose main claim to fame in the United States is a second to Shared Belief in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

Then, of course, there is the classic wild card, and that characterization works both ways. His name is California Chrome, the second choice at 4-1, and his story is as well known as it is compelling.

If you bet a little bit with your heart, Chrome is your choice.

The leading character that makes this so is a small man named Art Sherman. He is 77, was a former exercise rider for the great Swaps and actually slept in the stall on the train with Swaps when he went to the Kentucky Derby and won in 1955.

Sherman trained for years in Northern California, then moved his operation to Los Alamitos. That wasn’t even a thoroughbred track until recently, and so he toiled in relative anonymity.

“I’ve had a good life,� he is fond of saying.

Then, one day, a pair of newbie owners named Perry Martin and Steve Coburn, who somehow found a golden needle in racing’s haystack, brought him a horse they had named California Chrome.

Bred in California at John Harris’ farm in Coalinga, owned by first-timers and trained away from the thoroughbred mainstream of Santa Anita, poor little California Chrome had that cliche of chances — slim and none.

Then he won the Cal Cup. The San Felipe. And, OMG, the Santa Anita Derby. Nor was he done. They made him the betting favorite at the Kentucky Derby. What a story: From Coalinga to Churchill Downs.

Anybody who has ever held a Racing Form in their hand knows the rest. California Chrome won the Derby and the Preakness and didn’t run out of gas, or romantic appeal, until the last few furlongs of the Belmont, when Tonalist took over.

But the surrounding chaos was more than just failing at a shot at becoming racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner.

At the Preakness, Coburn, asked why fellow owner Martin wasn’t there, launched into a tirade about the shabby treatment Martin had received at Churchill Downs. It was a public spike into the middle of the Twin Spires.

Coburn wasn’t done.

When Tonalist won the Belmont, after not having raced in either the Derby or Preakness, Coburn launched into a televised tirade about the unfairness of horses skipping races and how racing needs to change the rules. He was too new to know that racing almost never changes the rules.

Coburn later apologized for the outburst — not the sentiment — and, to his credit, has remained an interesting character in a sport that can use them. But he and Martin got under racing’s skin a bit more in the months following the Triple Crown.

Del Mar wanted Chrome to race there, or at least parade for the fans. Martin demanded an appearance fee and told the San Diego Union-Tribune, “I bought to horse to race, not parade.�

Then, with an obvious need for one race before this Breeders’ Cup Classic, the owners chose the Pennsylvania Derby — again, with a large appearance fee — over a local race and a matchup with Shared Belief in the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita.

Chrome finished sixth, well back of Bayern, and Shared Belief became the pre-race big dog for the Classic.

Then, recently, Martin was quoted as saying that “with a clunker of a race,� it will be off to the breeding barn for California Chrome. No 4-year-old racing season for one of the more popular horses in years.

Through it all, Sherman has never stopped smiling, keeping an even keel. If there were an annual award for ambassador of the year, Sherman would be a lock.

Asked recently in a news conference his reaction to Martin’s statement and the chance he will lose his horse to stud duties, Sherman smiled and said, “I only go one race at a time. I just hope he has a great race.�

Then he smiled at the questioner, who knew that the bland answer was both appropriate and necessary.

A Breeders’ Cup Classic victory by California Chrome will likely mean horse-of-the-year honors, a huge deal in the sport. Same thing for Shared Belief.

Maybe racing should add a perseverance-of-the-year award.

That would lead to the only real certainty ever in this sport.

When accepting it, Art Sherman would smile.

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Twitter: DwyreLATimes.