California Chrome at his best heading into the Classic

When California Chrome steps onto the racetrack at Santa Anita Park on Saturday evening to take on nine foes in the $6-million Breeders’ Cup Classic, it will complete another chapter in the remarkable story of the renaissance horse.

Chrome, the 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness champion, enters the Classic - a race he finished third in two years ago - on a six-race win streak and is the even-money favorite to win. He's currently the richest horse in North American history, with earnings in excess of $13 million, a record many say may never be broken.

But what makes this story extraordinary is that, at this time last year, there was a chance Chrome would never run another race. Life for the blue-collar horse, who captured people's imagination with a fairy-tale run at a Triple Crown, had turned into a soap opera with illness, poor management, and meddling owners’ drama. Instead of galloping into immortality, the flashy chestnut colt, who'd turned the sport of kings on its head, was on the verge of fading into obscurity.

The offspring of Love the Chase, an $8,000 mare, and Lucky Pulpit, a little-known stallion who, at the time Chrome was conceived, commanded just $1,500 per breeding, Chrome instantly became a beacon for underdogs in a game dominated by sheikhs and billionaire business tycoons. He was bred and owned by Steve Coburn and Perry Martin, a pair of newbies to horse racing who called their stable Dumb Ass Partners, after hearing someone call them “dumbasses” for buying Love the Chase in hopes of breeding a champion racehorse.

But Chrome’s hero persona took a hit immediately after he failed to win the Triple Crown, finishing fourth in the Belmont Stakes. Coburn blasted winner Tonalist’s connections, calling them “cowards” for not competing in the two previous Triple Crown races. It was an episode that was embarrassing for racing and diminished the colt’s sparkle in the public eye (despite an apology days later on national TV).

After Chrome finished 2014 with just one more win and then earned a second-place run in the Dubai World Cup in March 2015, Martin, who held majority interest in the horse, unilaterally decided to take Chrome out of trainer Art Sherman's stable and send him to England, where Chrome would train up for a run at the prestigious Royal Ascot racing meet. Martin felt a win in Europe for Chrome could raise his value as a stallion (according to a story by Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated, Chrome’s stud fee would have been about $15,000, a fairly modest amount of money considering Triple Crown champ American Pharoah gets $200,000 per breeding).

Things didn't go to plan for Chrome across the pond: injuries prevented him from running and stress caused him to lose 150 pounds. Chrome came home underweight and needing to heal before a decision about the rest of his career could be made.

Duncan Taylor, proprietor of Taylor Made Farm, one of the biggest thoroughbred breeding operations in the world, could see things in the colt’s camp unravelling. He was interested in having Chrome eventually retire to his farm as a stallion for breeding, and offered to buy out Coburn’s 30 percent interest in the horse. Coburn, once the public face of Chrome (Martin always stayed out of the limelight), agreed to sell.

Ten months after his last race, the $10-million Dubai World Cup, Chrome returned to the races in the Grade 2 San Pasqual for his new ownership group, California Chrome LLC, which includes Martin, Taylor Made Farm, and other investors. He was saddled by his original trainer, Sherman, and ridden by his longtime jockey, Victor Espinoza. Chrome won. And he’s won every race he’s entered since, including the 2016 edition of the Dubai World Cup.

“He’s more mature, bigger, stronger and you can see it in the way he’s running,” Sherman told The Blood-Horse. “He’s kind of awesome to watch, to be honest with you.”

It’s believed that there's not a horse in training better than he is right now. A win on Saturday will leave no doubt.