Taylor Made buys share of California Chrome
By Steve Andersen

http://www.drf.com/news/premium/tayl...ifornia-chrome

California Chrome, shown at Arlington Park on Saturday, is sidelined with a bruised cannon bone.

California Chrome will be shipped to Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky., this week following the farm’s purchase of a minority share in the 2014 Horse of the Year, trainer Art Sherman said on Wednesday.

Sherman said Taylor Made has purchased the ownership share of California Chrome that was previously held by Steve Coburn. Coburn and Perry Martin bred and have raced California Chrome, who is sidelined with a bruised cannon bone diagnosed last weekend.

“The horse will go to Kentucky at the end of the week,” Sherman said. “He’s sound as long as you don’t try to run on it. He should be good in three months.”

Coburn, Martin, and Taylor Made president Duncan Taylor were not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

Sherman said long-term plans for California Chrome are uncertain, with the possibilities being a stallion career beginning in 2016 or a return to racing. In recent months, Martin has held discussions with stallion farms about retiring California Chrome to stud. Sherman said no plans have been finalized.

“There is a chance he could come back to racing or go to stud,” Sherman said. “All the vets I’ve talked to said he will be 100 percent with time off. The prognosis is good.”

California Chrome has not raced since finishing second in the $10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates on March 28. He was sent to England and trainer Rae Guest’s stable at Martin’s insistence following that race but missed two scheduled starts in that country – the Lockinge Stage at Newbury Racecourse on May 16 and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 17.

California Chrome missed the Prince of Wales’s Stakes because of a foot injury. He was sent to Arlington Park to be trained for the Arlington Million on Aug. 15 when the cannon-bone bruise was detected last weekend. The injury will prevent California Chrome from starting in important stakes in the autumn such as the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita.

A California-bred by Lucky Pulpit, California Chrome has won 9 of 18 starts and earned $6,322,650. He is best known for his wins in the 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

Seeing as how the sample size for people who lost a chance at a Triple Crown is quite small, I'm not sure what one can draw from that. All the others had a considerably longer history of racehorse ownership. Even the Sackatoga guys had been in it almost 8 years by the time Funny Cide won the Derby.

I find the pearl-clutching by horse racing fans over an owner mouthing off hilarious. Oh, heaven forfend, an owner who lost a race he thought he'd win said something rude in the heat of the moment. THIS IS THE WORST THING EVER TO HAPPEN IN THE HISTORY OF THE SPORT.

Why not? If you're going to speculate about what you think his motivations for apologizing are, it would be helpful to at least read what he actually said. It came across quite sincere to me. Sure, two days late, but he's hardly the first owner in the history of sports to have mouthed off. And he didn't use any profanity in his meltdown, which is more than you can say for the key players in many sports. ;)

Being new and thinking you know more than you do are not mutually exclusive. There's a reason second-year students are called "sophomores." It roughly translates as "know it all." There are plenty of people in this world who confuse being lucky with being good.

I would argue that flaw is not limited to new owners.

And this year they're learning how hard the game can be, what with Chrome and now Hope's Love both out for the rest of the year. They're still new at this. Martin will have years to learn how lucky he was with Chrome and that luck like that doesn't usually strike twice (hi, Cash is King!). I'm not certain the Coburns will stay in the business, and it does sound like the friendship Coburn had with Martin is over, which is a shame. In the words of that great philosopher Cyndi Lauper, money changes everything.

In the end, I'm far less upset by an owner offending my tender sensibilities with bad on-camera behavior than I am by an owner taking a horse away from the small-time trainer that started him and giving him to a big-name trainer just as the horse is getting really good. Coburn and Perry stuck with Sherman and gave Hope's Love to Sherman's son to train. Coburn mouths off and Perry has no comprehension of how the bloodstock market works, what with his obsession with raising Chrome's stud value, but when it counted, they danced with the one that brung them, and when Art Sherman passes away (not until years from now, I hope) his obituary will lead with, "Art Sherman, Kentucky Derby winning trainer of..." Far as I'm concerned, Coburn and Martin would have to do a lot more bad to cancel out the good karma they earned by keeping the horse with Sherman for the Triple Crown.

Mind you, if Chrome does come back at 5 and Taylor Made persuades Martin to change to a bigger trainer, then I'll spew plenty of venom. ;)

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...ifornia-chrome

glad to hear the plan is to race him another year.

Sherman thrilled to get news that California Chrome will race at age 5
@DRFPrivman

Art Sherman got the call he hoped for yesterday when Duncan Taylor of Taylor Made Farm informed him that California Chrome would be sent back to Sherman and would race next year at age 5.

"That picked my head up," Sherman said Sunday. "He'll come back to me after another 85 days or so. Duncan Taylor has taken over all the decisions with the horse. They want him to have another big year before going to stud."

Sherman said he thought the time off right now would do California Chrome good, irrespective of the bone bruising that forced him to the sidelines.

"He never had a little break," Sherman said. "This will help him heal up. He lost about 100 to 160 pounds. He was real underweight, with all the traveling to different places. He needed to be home.

"He's going to make a nice handicap horse, I'm sure of it," Sherman said.

Yay! Sherman deserves this. I hope they have a ton of fun with him next year.

At least now the horse is being managed by "Horse People" again.

:)
:tro: