The connections of Shared Belief could be forgiven for looking back at 2014 and wondering, “What if?” What if Shared Belief hadn’t gotten injured in the spring and had been able to run in the Triple Crown races? What if Shared Belief hadn’t been compromised at the start of the Breeders’ Cup Classic? Those are…
He won six straight races from December 2013 to May 2014, including the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, and while California Chrome won only once in four races in the second half of the year, Eclipse Award voters found his campaign worthy of Thoroughbred racing’s highest honor, giving him the Eclipse Award for 2014 Horse…
When California Chrome headed to Belmont Park in early June, he looked like a lock for, if not the Triple Crown, at least an Eclipse Award for champion 3-year-old, and maybe Horse of the Year. But after a fourth-place finish in the Belmont, California Chrome went winless in his next two races, finishing sixth in…
When Hollywood Park in Inglewood, California closed forever last December, it left a hole in the Southern California racing calendar. Hollywood’s racing schedule typically ran from April to mid-July, when Thoroughbred racing headed south to Del Mar for the boutique summer meet, then resumed in November and December. And while Del Mar is known for…
Before the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park on Saturday afternoon, plenty of people thought Bayern could win the race. But when it was over, and he crossed the finished line first, plenty of people thought he shouldn’t have. Breaking from post 7 in a field of 14 horses, Bayern swung sharply…
Maybe it was the cross-country ship. Maybe it was the post position. Maybe it was the speed-favoring track. Maybe it was the three-month layoff. Or maybe Bayern is just a faster horse. Whatever the reason, Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome lost his second consecutive race after winning six straight when he finished sixth…
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…
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…
California Chrome will run in the Belmont Stakes, and he will wear the nasal strips that caused such a furor over the last 36 hours. Acting with unusual celerity in an industry in which change is seldom enacted easily, the New York State Gaming Commission, which regulates Thoroughbred racing in the state, issued a release…
The paint on the weathervane at Pimlico, which carries the colors of the Preakness winner, had barely dried before California Chrome’s Triple Crown bid erupted in controversy. The chestnut colt’s length and a half victory on Saturday afternoon put to rest any lingering doubts that his performance in the Kentucky Derby was the result only…
Brooklyn Backstretch 