By DRF.com
ELMONT, N.Y. (May 22, 2014) — California Chrome got to stretch his legs at Belmont Park on Thursday, with his first gallop over the surface, and assistant trainer Alan Sherman liked what he saw.
California Chrome “took to the track like you can’t believe,” Sherman said. “This horse keeps on amazing me.”
With wins in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, California Chrome will seek to become the sport’s 12th Triple Crown winner in the Belmont Stakes on June 7. He has won six straight races, including all five of his starts this year.
After winning the Preakness on Saturday, California Chrome remained at Pimlico until Tuesday morning, when he was sent by van to Belmont Park. He jogged over the track on Wednesday, then stepped up his training to a gallop on Thursday.
California Chrome will continue to gallop until a half-mile workout on May 31, scheduled to be the lone workout for California Chrome between the Preakness and the Belmont. He did not work between the Derby and Preakness. Trainer Art Sherman said he believed California Chrome was fit, and that his main focus through the Triple Crown was keeping him fresh.
Alan Sherman is overseeing California Chrome’s training while his father tends to the rest of the stable’s runners at Los Alamitos in Southern California. Art Sherman, who was born in Brooklyn but whose family moved to Southern California when he was 7, is planning to head to New York about a week before the Belmont.
On Wednesday night, Art Sherman and California Chrome’s jockey, Victor Espinoza, threw out the first pitch at Angels Stadium before the game between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Houston Astros, which the Angels won, 2-1.
The Belmont field continued to swell on Thursday when Matuszak was added to the field. Matuszak will be a longshot – he has won just once in eight starts, and was second to Kid Cruz in the Tesio Stakes last time out – but what makes him particularly newsworthy is that he will be ridden by Mike Smith, who won last year’s Belmont on Palace Malice and who will be teaming again with trainer Bill Mott. Smith and Mott, both Hall of Famers, combined to win the Belmont in 2010 with Drosselmeyer.