From UTSanDiego.com
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. (Apr. 18, 2014) — Art Sherman was a teenager hanging around his father’s barber shop at Silver Lake in the center of Los Angeles one day when a few of his father’s customers offered some career advice.
“They were horseplayers, and they told my father I was just the right size to be a jockey,” said Sherman, who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., but moved with his family to California as a youngster.
Sherman took the advice and soon he was at legendary owner-breeder Rex Ellsworth’s ranch learning how to ride horses, seeing such movie stars as Rita Hayworth, sans make-up and pretenses.
When Ellsworth went to the 1955 Kentucky Derby with the great Swaps, Sherman accompanied him as an exercise rider. Occasionally, he rode Swaps and shortly after Swaps won the Derby, Sherman became a full-time jockey. He rode for 23 years before moving to the backstretch as a trainer. And now, after training for all these years, Sherman, 77 and now living with his wife, Faye, in Rancho Bernardo, finds himself at the doorstep of American horse racing’s biggest race, the Kentucky Derby. Only this time, Sherman and his son, Alan, will saddle California Chrome, the likely morning-line favorite to win the 140th Kentucky Derby.
“He’s my Swaps,” Sherman likes to say of California Chrome. “But remember, Swaps set six world records. He was a freak, the way he ran. California Chrome has potential to do a lot of things. There’s a long way to go, but what a start. He’s the Rock Star right now, and I’m the manager. But you know, it’s really coming at the right time. We needed a couple of heroes in our business.”
Sherman can’t prove it, and he actually might not want to dig too deep into it, but he wouldn’t be surprised if Perry Martin, a co-owner of California Chrome with Steve Coburn, made some kind of supernatural and spiritual deal to get California Chrome where he is and where he’s going. It’s like the racing gods have reached out and said, “Art Sherman, it’s your turn.”
Last March, when Sherman received word that he was getting Martin and Coburn’s 2-year-old to train, Martin sent him an email. The subject line simply read: “The Road to the Kentucky Derby.” It included all the races that California Chrome needed to enter to prep and qualify for the Kentucky Derby. Sherman said he’s glad Martin detailed the story to the media because he felt folks would think he made it up.
“Every race Perry put in that plan worked out just like he said.” Sherman said. “It’s kind of spooky, kind of like a miracle because I’ve been around this game a long time and know all the things that can happen. Why is this all happening? I don’t know. I’m just going to enjoy the ride and enjoy a really good horse.”
It’s more of a reward to Sherman who has melded his close-knit family, his loyal barn staff and the Coburns and Martins to form what can only be called the Mom And Pop California Chrome Team. And now, this talented 3-year-old son of Lucky Pulpit, out of the one-race winning mare, Love The Chase, has become the likely morning-line favorite to win the Kentucky Derby. California Chrome has won four straight races by a combined 24¼ lengths. He is 3-0 as a 3-year-old and delivered to Sherman his first win in a $1 million race, the Santa Anita Derby. He’s trying to be the first California-bred to win the Kentucky Derby since Decidedly in 1962. And Sherman is trying to be the oldest trainer to ever win the Kentucky Derby. Charlie Whittingham was 76 years old when he won the 1989 Kentucky Derby with Sunday Silence.