California Chrome at Parx with exercise rider Willie Delgado and assistant trainer Alan Sherman. Photo credit Bill Denver/Equiphoto

On Saturday at the racetrack now called Parx (formerly Philadelphia Park), Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome will make his first start since finishing fourth in the Belmont Stakes in June, becoming the 12th horse since 1978, the year of the last Triple Crown winner, to fail in a Triple Crown bid.

Given a break following his taxing campaign in the first half of the year, in which he raced six times, the Belmont his lone loss, California Chrome is perhaps perplexingly shipping east from his California base to race in the Pennsylvania Derby instead of staying closer to home to run in the Awesome Again at Santa Anita on Sept. 27.

But while the Awesome Again is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race, offering an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on November 1, the Pennsylvania Derby offers two incentives that the West Coast race does not.

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