The build-up to the R5 million Gr1 Sun Met to be run at Kenilworth in Cape Town has overshadowed much of the interest in the world’s richest race for South African racing fans.
California Chrome was voted US Horse Of The Year for the second time in three years last weekend and he looks to go out in a blaze of glory at Gulfstream Park on Saturday in the richest race in thoroughbred racing history when he takes on his Breeders’s Cup Classic conqueror Arrogate.
California Chrome
The duo lead the field of 12 horses in the inaugural running of the Gr1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational worth US$12 million, with the winner earning US$7m .
If California Chrome gets revenge for the Breeders’ Cup and wins this last race before he goes to stud, he will run his career earnings to US$21.5m. That would move him past the five Japanese horses in front of him and make him the world-record holder.
It won’t be a cakewalk though!
He will have to overcome a wide draw of 12 on Gulfstream’s tough 1800m dirt course, which begins with a quick left turn at the end of the lane. That carries a huge disadvantage for runners drawn outside.
In the 11 years of Gulfstream’s current configuration, only seven of 117 horses have won at more than 1600m drawing outside barrier 9. Arrogate conversely drew the rail.
Chrome’s 79-year-old trainer Art Sherman said: “You can’t make any excuses. The only good thing I thought about this, we won’t have to be in the starting gate long. We can overcome all this, believe me.”
Victor Espinoza
That responsibility falls on Víctor Espinoza, a jockey who can be very, very good or very, very bad.
He rode American Pharoah in 2015 to the first US Triple Crown in 37 years, and he overcame a terribly loose saddle to ride California Chrome to victory in last year’s Dubai World Cup.
But in November, Espinoza set too slow a pace on Chrome in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, even looking behind him on the backstretch and somehow missing Arrogate’s hard charge. The result was a thrilling duel to the finish that Arrogate won by half a length.
“If things didn’t work out the way I rode him before,” I’m not going to ride him again like that next time,” Espinoza told ThroughbredRacing.com. “I’m never going to ride the same when I get beat.”
Because of the wide draw, Espinoza may have no choice but to challenge for the lead from the jump with another six-year-old – one-time Gr1-winner Noble Bird – the likely pacesetter.
Arrogate – main challenger
No one is more of an expert on how to succeed at Gulfstream Park than Todd Pletcher, who has won 13-consecutive training titles here and already has more than twice as many wins in 2016-17 than any two other trainers combined. He is not dismissing Chrome’s chances.
“If you draw the 1 or the 12, you want to break alertly,” said Pletcher, who has Keen Ice and Neolithic in the Pegasus. “I think that puts a little more pressure on breaking well. But outside of that California Chrome probably doesn’t mind being outside.”
Considering the lack of quality aside from Chrome and Arrogate, the barrier draw may wind up being incidental. Chrome has seven Gr1 wins. The four-year-old Arrogate has two in his brief racing career.
The rest of the field has six Grade/Group 1 victories all up. Four of the horses have no graded-stakes wins. One – Semper Fortis – is an out-of-place maiden.
