Champion California Chrome worked five furlongs in :59.20 Saturday morning here before more than 1,200 early-risers and on a racetrack cleared of all but a few other potential rivals in the $200,000 Grade II San Diego Handicap on Saturday, July 23.

 

Wearing his usual blinkers and with regular exercise rider Dihigi Gladney in the irons, they broke away from the accompanying pony at the five-furlong pole on an overcast morning and went through officially-timed splits of :12, :23.80, :35.60 and :46.80 en route to the final clocking. He galloped out another furlong in 1:13.

 

Trainer Art Sherman and his son Alan, observed from a box in the grandstand near the finish line. Alan called out split times of :23.60 and:45.60 en route to the identical five-furlong clocking. Sherman had the gallop-out in 1:12.

 

Del Mar’s clockers gave the 5-year-old California-bred winner of more than $12.5 million in purses a coveted “B” for “breezing,” a term reserved for only the easiest of works. Gladney never pushed on his charge and stood up in the saddle as they went past the finish line. The clocking crew noted that to that point in the morning (7:45), no other horses had worked quicker than 1:01 for the five-furlong distance.

 

“He’s got his game face on,” Sherman said. “He’s a different horse when he’s getting ready to run. Dihigi had plenty of horse when he came by me. I’m very pleased with what I saw.”

 

Jeremy Balan of The Bloodhorse, an observer of Chrome’s six works at Los Alamitos since June 4, said the 5-year-old’s Del Mar effort was far superior, visually and on the stopwatch, to any at the Orange County facility.

 

An hour after the Chrome Show, Gladney, from astride another Sherman worker, was in agreement.

 

“It was a really good work and he likes this track,” Gladney said. “I’ve worked other horses on it and thought it was a little heavy. But he handled it easy. I looked at my watch (during the work) and the fractions were good and I wasn’t doing anything, so I just let him go on.

 

“I had to take him off the rail a little to slow him down and, you’re right, I was almost standing up at the finish line.”

 

California Chrome is expected to meet about a half-dozen rivals next week in the $200,000, Grade II San Diego at a mile and one-sixteenth in his first start since he captured the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 26. The San Diego is designed as a stepping stone for the 12-time winner to start next in the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar on August 20. 

 

Two other potential San Diego runners also used the 7:45 to 8 a.m. “clear track” time to exercise Saturday – multiple stakes winner Dortmund, who only galloped, and the 2015 Santa Anita Gold Cup winner Hard Aces, who covered six furlongs in 1:13.80.

 

 

 

On-track attendance for the first Opening Day on a Friday in 40 years was 42,562, the largest crowd of the year at a California racetrack and 2,258 more than the 2015 initial turnout.

 

The total handle of $16,374,231 represented an increase of just over a million more than in 2015.

 

On the track, Santiago Gonzalez grabbed the lead in the jockey standings with three wins while Tyler Baze and Kent Desormeaux both notched two victories.

 

The assessment of Ron Ebanks, Gonzalez’s new agent: “We wanted to get their attention.”

 

Trainer Peter Miller and jockey Gary Stevens collaborated to win the traditional Opening Day Oceanside Stakes with Monster Bea,  a Gary Barber-owned Hat Trick gelding who had shipped from Kentucky and been in Miller’s care for about a week. Miller gave great credit  for the win to previous trainer Mark Casse.

 

Stevens rode Monster Bea to a victory in Kentucky and the Hall of Fame rider’s new agent, Mike Ciani, suggested they pursue the mount for the Oceanside. “I think I’ll keep (Ciani) around for awhile,” Stevens said.

 

Jockey-agent relationships are like Hollywood marriages. Some prove lasting, but most do not. In his eight years in the business, Ciani has had the book of Jon Court, Brice Blanc, Irving Orozco and, for one year, Kent Desormeaux. That parting of the ways came after the Santa Anita Derby and Ciani moved from one Hall of Fame rider to another.

 

“Growing up and following racing Gary Stevens was my favorite rider,” Ciani said. “My license plate is Silver Charm.” Stevens rode Silver Charm to victories in the 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

 

Miller reported that Monster Bea came out of the race very well. “A good way to start the meet and hopefully we can keep it rolling,” Miller said.

 

 

 

Ashleyluvssugar ended a 10-month racing hiatus  with a third-place finish in the Crystal Water Stakes at Santa Anita on June 11. A nice result from the layoff that would figure  to set the 5-year-old gelded son of Game Plan up nicely for Sunday’s Grade II, $250,000 1 1/8-mile Eddie Read Stakes here.

 

And the Read could be “A nice prep for the Del Mar Handicap (Grade II, $250,000, August 20), Eurton said.

 

Which would bring things full circle since the 2015 Del Mar Handicap, a runner-up effort to Big John B, completed a campaign of three wins in six starts – including back-to-back Grade II scores in the San Luis Rey and Charlie Whittingham at Santa Anita, for earnings of $347,050.

 

“He ran a very game race (in the Crystal Water) and could have won, but a mile isn’t his best distance,” Eurton said. “So we’re very hopeful that on this turf  course and with the added distance, he’ll run a big race.”

 

The field, from the rail out: Ashleyluvssugar (Gary Stevens, 6-1), Flamboyant (Flavien Prat, 9-2), Texas Ryano (Joe Talamo, 15-1), Si Sage (Victor Espinoza, 12-1), Midnight Storm (Rafael Bejarano, 5-2), Finnegans Wake (Tyler Baze, 6-1), Ohio (Brice Blanc, 8-1), Patentar (Alonso Quinonez, 20-1), and Bolo (Mike Smith, 3-1).

 

 

 

As Chantal Sutherland she was the “face” of Del Mar in the 2011-12 summer seasons, appearing on billboards and TV ads, riding in the 2011 “Battle of the Exes” against former fiancée Mike Smith, finishing second to Dullahan aboard Game On Dude in the 2012 Pacific Classic and winning the 2011 Torrey Pines Stakes.

 

Now, after four years out of the Del Mar spotlight that encompassed retirement, marriage, pursuit of a career in real estate, and a reuniting with agent Tommy Ball in December, she’s back and booked to ride Ruby Trust (20-1) in Saturday’s eighth race.

 

The name in the “Jockey” column in the program is her married one, Chantal Kruse.

 

“I’m here for the whole meet and definitely back in racing for the long haul,” Kruse, recognizable in pink safety vest and helmet cover, said Saturday morning in the stable area. “I missed it so much and it definitely feels more normal to me than anything else I’ve done.”

 

 

CLOSERS  -- Selected works from 221 officially timed Saturday morning: California Chrome (5f, :59.20), Enola Gray (5f, :59.40), Luminance (1:01.00), Smokey Image (5f, 1:00.20), Hard Aces (6f, 1:13.80) and Win the Space (6f, 1:14.60) … Tom Whayne extended his string of  Opening Day attendance to 65 straight years on Friday and plans to be here on September 2 to  celebrate his 92^nd birthday … Reminder: The  final Carma Cares casino fund raiser, a Texas Hold-Em Poker tournament is tonight, starting at 6:30 at the  Del Mar Hilton Hotel. For  last-minute information check the carma4horses.org web site or call (626) 574-6622.

 

 

Contact: Dan Smith 858-792-4226/Hank Wesch 858-755-1141 ext. 3793