California Chrome was the favourite for the Kentucky Derby earlier this month, and duly won. Not much in the way of a story there, right?
Not quite. As you may have read in the Otago Daily Times (5.5.14), California Chrome was cheaply bred for $US10,000 ($NZ11,500) thanks to some no-name stallion called Lucky Pulpit and a not-particularly-fast mare named Love The Chase.
The slow mare cost the two owners $4000 each after they had leased her for a racing career and Lucky Pulpit's seed was just $2000.
Compared with the eye-watering fees charged in Kentucky, which can reach as much as $150,000 for Tapit or War Front, California Chrome was like one of those kitset bedside drawers I bought at The Warehouse once.
A complete guess as to whether it's going to end up being put together properly.
Unlike the drawers, which still have a piece of dowel sticking out where it shouldn't be thanks to my complete lack of handyman skills, California Chrome has come out looking like a piece of Chippendale furniture.
... from anywhere ...
That's not all, though. The fact is the California racing industry could arguably be described as being at the top of a death spiral. To capture that in a nutshell, California Chrome won the last stakes race at Hollywood Park on December 22, 2013.
When I say last stakes race, that means EVER. A track that was established with the help of shareholders such as Walt Disney, Bing Crosby and Al Jolson is no more.
Derby winners simply don't emerge from California any more - at least not since Decidedly in 1962. The travel is a factor, as are the breeding numbers from the West Coast state.
... for the Triple Crown
So, now, California Chrome is favourite for the Preakness Stakes. It would be great if he could at least set himself up for the Triple Crown with a win on Sunday morning.
But the abbreviation-happy sub-editor, who has featured in this column in the past, has a feeling about California Chrome.
He reckons it's time for the Triple Crown to be conquered for the first time since Affirmed claimed the Derby, the Preakness and Belmont in 1978.
Hopefully, he's right. It could be the story that California racing - and racing across the United States - needs.
Lazy Fiver
I was sitting pretty for at least a place collect with Cool Cobber last week. He was in a perfect spot just off the pace, but Flying Isa gave ground in front of him and he had to sit without cover for the last 700m in the Rowe Cup. Good effort for fourth, all the same.
I'm on Pencuri in race 7 at Awapuni tomorrow due to his good fresh-up record and his ability to handle a heavy track.
