With less than two months to go before the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita Park on October 31 and November 1, the $5 million Classic may well shape up to be a showdown between two California 3-year-olds, with an Eclipse Award at stake.

Off since his fourth-place finish in the Belmont Stakes, California Chrome, winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, is set to make his return to the races on September 20 in the Pennsylvania Derby at Parx. A $1 million race that offers an additional $50,000 to the owners and trainer of any horse that won a Triple Crown race, the Haskell, or the Travers, and as Breeders’ Cup analyst Randy Moss says in his most recent rankings in the Classic division, money talks.

The Pennsylvania Derby is also a Classic prep for straight 3-year-olds, putting off both California Chrome’s first tussle against older horses and his first race against the undefeated Shared Belief. Were California Chrome, whom Moss places at #2 in his rankings, to lose twice to Shared Belief, he’d likely lessen his chances at divisional honors at January’s Eclipse Awards.

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