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California Chrome: rags-to-riches hero in seismic showdown

 PICTURE: Matt Wooley/EquiSport

California Chrome and Shared Belief to clash

Preview: USA, Saturday 12 midnight GMT

Santa Anita: San Antonio Stakes (Grade 2) 1m1f, dirt, 4yo+

SANTA ANITA hosts a seismic clash in Saturday’s San Antonio Stakes when reigning US champion Calfornia Chrome faces off against Shared Belief, whose only defeat in nine starts came in controversial circumstances in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

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A foot abscess prevents Classic winner Bayern from joining the party – better on paper than any number of Grade 1s – but his presence still looms large as his trainer Bob Baffert bids to gatecrash the affair with the formidable Hoppertunity, who should not be overlooked in a nine-runner field for an enthralling $500,000 contest.

Last year’s US dirt Classic crop was as good as there’s been for some time, as evinced by three-year-olds filling the first six places in the Classic, the continent’s senior race. Rags-to-riches hero California Chrome (Art Sherman/Victor Espinoza), the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, closed late against an apparent bias to miss out by just a neck and a nose behind Bayern and the gallant Toast Of New York.

After a Grade 1 win on turf four weeks later, he was voted Horse of the Year at the Eclipse Awards, and a tilt at the Emirates Dubai World Cup is very much on the agenda.

“I think he’s stronger this year,” said jockey Victor Espinoza. “The way he feels when I work him, he’s bigger and more mature. From last year to this is a big difference. He’s been working really strong. I believe he’ll run as good as a four-year-old as he did at three.”

The brilliant Shared Belief (Jerry Hollendorfer/Mike Smith) never got a look-in at the Eclipse Awards. Shared Belief, though, was the chief sufferer when Bayern shifted left out of the starting gate at the Breeders’ Cup Classic – and his jockey Mike Smith reckoned he would have won but for the incident. That may have been an exaggeration but it certainly cost him any chance. He finished fourth, the only blemish on a career record of eight wins from nine starts embellished in December with another Grade 1 win here over a seemingly inadequate 7f in the Malibu Stakes.

Many experts are convinced Shared Belief – two-year-old champion in 2013 – is a better horse than California Chrome but the latter is by far the more popular with the general public thanks to his humble antecedents. For all Shared Belief’s successes, his fellow Californian-trained four-year-old opponent also has a more glowing CV, his victories having come in more of the high-profile races that define the career of a US racehorse. You pays your money and takes your choice.

Any rivalry between the two camps is purely friendly as veteran trainers Sherman and Hollendorfer have the utmost respect for each other. The situation may be slightly different when it comes to Hoppertunity (Bob Baffert/Martin Garcia), who breaks from the rail for Bayern’s trainer. Presumably there is no love lost between the Baffert and Hollendorfer camps after the Classic debacle, which was not the first time controversy had surrounded Shared Belief’s experience with a Baffert horse.

On his previous outing, Shared Belief won the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita – but only after he had been pushed out wide throughout by Baffert-trained outsider Sky Kingdom. All the while, Baffert’s more fancied horse Fed Biz was making hay on the front end; he was beaten just a neck after a furious stretch drive.

According to reports, there was a bit of ‘afters’ in the jocks’ room, where Mike Smith allegedly cursed Sky Kingdom’s rider, who said: “He told me, ‘Keep walking or I’ll cut your head off.’ He disrespected me, which is kind of surprising for a Hall of Fame rider like him.”

That rider was none other than Victor Espinoza, now abroad California Chrome. It could be interesting indeed on Saturday, when outside the big three, it is 20-1 the field with Ladbrokes.

Ladbrokes: 6-4 California Chrome, 13-8 Shared Belief, 4 Hoppertunity, 20 Tonito M, 25 Bronzo, Alfa Bird, 33 Imperative, 40 You Know I Know, Clubhouse Ride.

Also on Saturday

Santa Anita: Robert B Lewis Stakes (Grade 3) 1m1/2f, dirt, 3yo (10.30pm GMT)

With American Pharoah as his stablemate, the unbeaten Dortmund(Bob Baffert/Martin Garcia) may be considered his trainer’s second string as far as the Kentucky Derby is concerned. For anybody else, though, he’d be number one after capping his two-year-old campaign with a narrow victory in the Los Alamitos (ex-Hollywood) Futurity in December.

Dortmund lunged late to win that Garde 1 contest by just a head over Firing Line (Simon Callaghan/Gary Stevens), his chief rival here with a 5lb pull.

Ladbrokes: 5-6 Dortmund, 7-4 Firing Line, 8 Rock Shandy, 20 Tizcano, Hero Ten All, 33 Sebastian’s Heart

Santa Anita: San Marcos Stakes (Grade 2) 1m2f, turf, 4yo+ (11.30pm GMT)

Finnegans Wake (Peter Miller/Victor Espinoza) bids to complete a hat-trick in Californian Grade 2 turf races, having won the Hollywood Turf Cup (now at Del Mar) and San Gabriel Stakes on his last two starts.

On both occasions, he surged late to beat Patrioticandproud (Mark Casse/Drayden Van Dyke), who reopposes in a $200,000 event in which Kieren Fallon rides allowance winner Power Foot (Neil Drysdale).

fonte : RacingPost