In May of 2008 in Maryland, Greg Gilchrist, bought a chestnut-colored filly named Love The Chase. Though she was smaller than a desired thoroughbred would be, the price was too great to pass up.
After the sale, she was sent back to the racetrack in California, her owner wanting to see his investment succeed. Running poorly in her first three races, she was dropped into an $8,000 maiden clam race, which was the lowest rung at the Golden Gate Fields in San Francisco. After she had won, Scott Sherwood, who was in charge of her ownership group, met with Gilchrist. Sherwood, asking what he was thinking, was told “If you can find somebody who will give you $8,000 for her, I’d get rid of her right now.” And he did just that.
May of 2009, trying to get rid of the filly, two men within the ownership group came to the plate to invest more into the filly. They were now the only owners of the mare. They continued to race her, and she nearly came in last every single race. People thought that they should get rid of her, sell her for little to nothing or just hand her off to someone else for free. Many people were floured when they figured out that they were going to retire her and then breed her. If you know anything about horseracing, then you know that you don’t breed with horses that have an unsuccessful racing career.
Gilchrist, the former trainer, never stated they were “dumb-asses,” but he questioned why anyone would want to breed with the mare.
Looking back through the mare’s pedigree, noticing she dissented from Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer, Steve Coburn was on board with breeding her. The owners paired her with Lucky Pulpit, a 10 year old that had only won three times out of 22 start, and only paid a stud fee of $2,000.
Almost a year later, Love The Chase gave birth to a chestnut colored cold with four white feet and a white blaze. Scribbling the names down on several piece of paper, and throwing them into a hat they got one day at a restaurant, their waitress would pick the winning name out of the hat for the new colt. The winning name was California Chrome.
Three years later, this colt would win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and fall short of the Triple Crown loosing at the Belmont Stakes in 2014. Nobody knew what this horse was capable of doing, and he quickly became America’s horse after the win in Kentucky. Though he did fall short of ending the drought of a Triple Crown winner, Chrome continued on in his racing career.
After the run for the crown, California Chrome would win 2014 horse of the year, and become undefeated excluding one loss to Arrogate, who he would later face in the first ever Pegasus world cup that was ran on January 25, 2017. He became the highest earning thoroughbred after winning the 10 million Dubai world cup on March 26, 2016. At the now biggest horse race in the world in gulf-stream park in Florida, a run for 12 million dollars, now bigger than the Dubai world cup. The stakes were high for chrome due to the owners deciding this would be the horse’s last race, and he would retire at the age of six to become a breeding stallion. The expectations were high for Chrome to win, but the only thing that would stand in his way was Arrogate, the only horse to break his winning streak. Though, the race included 12 horses, all eyes and bets were on the two horses.
Days leading up to the race, Chrome worked out nicely in the mornings, looking prepared for the race. On the day of the race, the stands got filled and smaller races ran all day. Around five p.m. it was time to prepare for the final race of Chromes career. The odds were even between the two top horses. No one knew what was going to happen.
I can remember sitting in my living room watching as they got Chrome around. Something didn’t seem right. He didn’t act very comfortable. When he was on the track and they were trying to load him into the gate, he just acted uncomfortable. He was placed on the outside gate, number 12, while Arrogate was standing in the first hole. If you know anything about horse racing, the first gate is always bad to be in because it is very easy to get boxed on the rail. If you are on the far outside, you have to motor yourself and try to get out in front and over to the rail as fast as possible.
As the gates flung open, Arrogate surged forward, and Chrome raced over, boxing Arrogate on the fence. As I watched I said “He’s got him, as long as chrome stays up there with him, Arrogate is done for.” I was so excited. They ran most of the race that way, but around the last turn, Chrome sucked back and let Arrogate out. It was like Chrome hit a brick wall. Arrogate found his stride and pulled away from the cluster of horses and crossed the finish line. But what happened to Chrome? Around the last turn when he started to suck back, Victor Espinosa (the jockey) knew that there was no point pushing Chrome very hard, and he just let him gallop to the finish line, finishing last. This was horrible for anyone who was a Chromie. It was almost like he just let Arrogate go. Everyone knew that it wasn’t like Chrome to run like that.
For anyone that was a fan of Chrome, this loss didn’t make us think of the horse any different. This was the horse that everyone watched for the last three years become one of the greatest horses in the history of racing. He was proof that you don’t have to have the best breeding in order to be successful. He was proof that you can come from nothing and become something. He has inspired so many people. He has given a different outlook to racing as a whole. He one of those once in a life time horses and I am not sure anyone will be able to trump what he has done.
I wish Arrogate a successful career. For such a horse to have that great of a stride and carry himself with that much beauty, is truly amazing. It is almost as if Chrome handed the torch to Arrogate when he let him out of that box and let him win. It will be sad to never see him run again, but he has made the most of his career and will always be America’s horse.
