Sorted by date Results 1 - 11 of 11
Santa Anita Park concluded the six-month 2023-24 Winter-Spring season on June 16 which, when combined with the six-week Autumn Meet from 2023, produced a 99.97% safety record, making the 1/ST Racing facility the safest track in North America among those with a comparable volume of racing and training. Since the Opening Day of the Autumn meet on Sept. 29, 2023, through the Closing Day of the Hollywood Meet on June 17, 2024, 6,678 horses ran in races over Santa Anita’s main track and turf course. The 99.97% safety mark ranks Santa Anita the h...
Opening Day 2018 at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Racetrack once again lived up to its billing, delighting the festive hat-adorned crowd. The predicted foul weather was held at bay where "the turf meets the surf" and instead gave way to sunny skies by late afternoon. Minutes earlier, the featured $100,000 Oceanside Stakes race was won by 11-1 longshot Restrainedvengence. The early excitement for the 33,112 in attendance revolved around the 24th annual Opening Day Hats Contest. Five celebrity...
Dihigi Gladney Interview - Part 1 In Autumn 2015 Dihigi Gladney was blessed by the horse gods. He was employed by trainer Art Sherman as the exercise rider for California Chrome, one of the world's great athletes over the past four years. The celebrated thoroughbred with cult status is preparing for this Satuday's inaugural running of The Pegasus Cup at Gulfstream Park, Florida. This is part one in a short series with Dihigi Gladney as he gives his final thoughts on working with California...
Leaving on a jet plane, won't be back again. Oh Babe, please don't go. Suddenly it was over. Just like that. Yet, for Southern California horse racing fans it was the ride of a lifetime. "Chrome will fly to Florida on Friday, January 6. We'll train him up to The Pegasus. He'll be staying at Gulfstream Park. We'll get a couple of workouts with him over at the track. A day or two after the race he'll get on a plane to go to Lexington. He'll likely never be back in Southern California. He's going...
The greatest athlete in the world blew away the field at Santa Anita Park on a hot October afternoon with the sun-baked San Gabriel Mountains towering in approval just furlongs away. California Chrome struck such a dominant tone on Saturday, October 1, 2016 in the Awesome Again Stakes that it even threatened to blur the thoroughbred's most recent must-see wins. "I can't say enough about the ride. It was just perfect. The horse is great and the people involved with the horse are great," said Art...
California Chrome. What else needs to be said? Two years after running away with the 2014 American Horse of the Year honors the chestnut-hued thoroughbred with four white feet is still sending Southern California horse racing fans into a screaming frenzy like few others can. "We're coming into the race good and hoping that we have a good trip. You're always worried the first time back off of a layoff. California Chrome has been training forwardly and he's won a lot of races doing that," said...
California Chrome ridden by Victor Espinoza sprinted from the starting gates, blew away the field and coasted to victory in the $1,000,000 TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar Racetrack on Saturday, August 20. The potential trouble for Chrome, running out of post position No. 1, never materialized in a field of nine that included Beholder, last year's Pacific Classic run-away champion and Dortmund who lost by just a half-length to Chrome four weeks ago in the San Diego Handicap on the same track. The...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter California Chrome is on a serious fast-track to become a horse for the ages regardless of the obstacles thrown in his path on or off the track. The moment jockey Victor Espinoza rode the ultra-charismatic three-year old across the Pimlico Race Course finish line in their now-familiar grand style to win the 139th Preakness Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths in front of a record crowd on Saturday, May 17, he was suddenly staring at the New York Racing Association and company...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter What a horse. What a team. And California bred. California Chrome's magical mystery tour intensified as the three-year old wonder horse thoroughly electrified and wooed the horseracing world and beyond by winning the 140th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in his own superlative style and ridden in brilliant fashion by jockey Victor Espinoza on Saturday, May 3. The enchanted chestnut-colored colt contrasted by the elegant white markings on his face and all four...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter The California Chrome saga continues... Training before the big race: Willie Delgado is living the California dream and the beauty of it is... it wasn't planned. Better yet... much of his dream is shared with a colt. Willie is the exercise rider for California Chrome, the three-year old sensation and Southern California resident who is the crowd-favorite to capture this weekend's Kentucky Derby crown in Louisville. Delgado is thankful and pragmatic about his...
Art Sherman and California Chrome is the best emerging sports story of 2014. It is poetic justice that their successful unveiling has blossomed out of the ashes of Hollywood Park Racetrack's sad and undeserved death on Dec. 22, 2013. Sherman trains thoroughbred racehorses and California Chrome is his lead horse. The chemistry between the 77-year old veteran trainer and the three-year old colt is undeniable. So far their relationship has been flushed in spades. What started out with a handshake...
