Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner California Chrome is the 4-5 morning line favorite in the expected field of six 3-year-olds in Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile Grade I $300,000 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar Racetrack.
The race will be the first on turf for California Chrome, who hasn’t won since winning the Preakness Stakes on May 17.
“There’s something about Del Mar, he’s a different horse here,” Art Sherman, California Chrome’s 77-year-old trainer said. “I’ve always thought he could be good on grass. He’s so efficient. He doesn’t have any wasted motion. So far, he floats over it.”
Sherman said he entered California Chrome in Hollywood Derby to help boost his chances for Horse of the Year and to “give me a lot of options” for California Chrome’s 4-year-old campaign in 2015.
California Chrome will be the seventh Kentucky Derby champion to race at Del Mar after winning the nation’s most famous race and first since Giacomo, the 2005 winner.
California Chrome’s bid for the Triple Crown ended with a dead heat for fourth in the Belmont Stakes on June 7 when he was stepped on by the horse next to him at the start, tearing some tissue in his right front heel.
California Chrome returned to racing Sept. 20, finishing sixth in the Pennsylvania Derby. He was third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic Nov. 1.
“I wish I had gone into the Breeders’ Cup like we’re coming into this race,” Sherman said.
“I didn’t get the race I wanted him to have in Pennsylvania, he was too covered up, it wasn’t the race he really needed. With another workout, there’s no doubt he would have won the Breeders’ Cup.”
— City News Service
