California Chrome's owner settles in before Pa. Derby

Steve Coburn, a lifelong westerner, had never been to Philadelphia before this week, so he put his pearl-gray Stetson on his head and took his wife, Carolyn, to see the Liberty Bell on Wednesday.

The line was pretty long and stretched down the block, so Coburn went around the side to see whether there might be another way in. Not really, but he came to a glass wall and right there was the Liberty Bell, and they both got a good, long look at it.

"People were standing in line a long time to get their picture taken next to it, but I saw it. I even saw the crack," Coburn said.

Afterward, they walked through Independence Hall, had a bite in Old City - not far from John B. Stetson's first hat-making shop, by the way - and chalked it up as a pretty good day, not counting the traffic on I-95.

"Met a lot of nice people," Coburn said.

He hopes that Saturday is just as enjoyable when California Chrome, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes champion, comes back from a long layoff to try his luck in the Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing in Bensalem.

Coburn, who co-owns Chrome with partner Perry Martin, is pointing the horse toward the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita, but there's nothing wrong with a well-timed payday along the way. In racing, there's also more than one way to see the Liberty Bell.

California Chrome left the backside barn area and stepped onto the track promptly at 8:30 Thursday morning, just after the last formation of tractors finished grooming the dirt surface. The slanting sunlight brightened his chestnut coat, and Chrome looked around to figure out where he might be.

The flights that brought him from California on Tuesday made several stops on the cross-country trip, but if his body clock had gotten off-kilter it didn't show. He looked fit and lively under the exercise rider, and powerful from the 60 pounds of mass added during his six-week vacation after the Belmont Stakes. Trainer Art Sherman hadn't worried about the trip. In this business, Chrome is considered a good traveler.

"He's a lot better traveler than I am," Coburn said as he watched his horse gallop past, not a full-out gallop for Chrome, but enough to make the wind whistle through his ears. He went a mile and a half like that, maybe a little more, then eased past the winner's circle and into the paddock area to get familiar with that surrounding. Come Saturday, when California Chrome is brought to the paddock to be saddled, he will have seen it and smelled it before, and horses appreciate that kind of thing.

"He seemed to get over the track great, and he schooled great, and everything's a go," assistant trainer Alan Sherman said. "He's not scared of anything, this horse. He's pretty tough."

Chrome will be schooled in the starting gate on Friday morning and then gallop again. He probably will even work lightly on Saturday morning just to stretch a little before the long wait until the 5:40 p.m. post time for the Pennsylvania Derby.

The race has a very representative field this year and a total purse of $1 million, but for California Chrome, it really could be nothing more than a tune-up before the Breeders' Cup, in which he could cement his status as horse of the year and fend off a challenge from upstart rival Shared Belief.

"The timing [of the Pennsylvania Derby] is perfect. And it's a 3-year-olds race, the last time he'll be up against just 3-year-olds," Sherman said. "We just want to get a good race. If he doesn't win, he doesn't win. You hope he wins. That's always the goal, but the ultimate goal is the Breeders' Cup."

As good as California Chrome was in the spring, there was the feeling of unfinished business when his run ended in the Belmont as he was boxed in along the rail, expended energy trying to break free, and finished in a dead heat for fourth place.

Chrome failed to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978, and Coburn vented his frustration after the race by flailing at a system that allows fresh horses to run down a champion that had persevered through a five-week grind. Coburn apologized quickly, and the fact is the horse wasn't quite good enough that day, and there is some debate about just how strong the competition was in the Triple Crown races this year.

"I watched this horse grow up. He was a day old the first time my wife and I saw him. To see him grow up and everything he's gone through, there's this emotion and adrenaline," Coburn said. "What happened, happened. It's over and done with."

The questions aren't done with, though, and won't be, regardless of Saturday's outcome, until California Chrome and the undefeated Shared Belief break from the gate in the Breeders' Cup. Shared Belief will have a tune-up next weekend in the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita, getting his prep race without the need for a plane ride and over the same surface where the Classic will be run.

Chrome could have taken that route, too, but coming to Parx allowed the owners to pick up a $100,000 guaranteed bonus, with another $100,000 for Art Sherman. A win would put $600,000 on top of that. There are bonuses every year if a Triple Crown race winner enters the Pennsylvania Derby, and similar bonuses for the winners of the Travers Stakes and Haskell Invitational. On the other hand, Chrome already has won a lot of money. He could have remained home and entered the Awesome Again a lot more easily. Are his people dodging Shared Belief - the 2013 2-year-old champion who had to skip the spring races because of an abscessed hoof - as long as possible?

"We're not dodging anybody. We'll run against anybody that comes up against us. It's not our fault Shared Belief wasn't at the Kentucky Derby," Coburn said. "We've won four graded stakes races, including three Grade Is. Shared Belief has won one Grade I race. And the National Thoroughbred Racing Association has him [ranked] on top of California Chrome. Nobody can take away from what this horse has done . . . It's going to be real interesting. It really is."

Chrome will break from the inside post position on Saturday, and, if things go as envisioned, he will get away from the rail and stalk a pace set by Bayern, the Haskell winner, and CJ's Awesome, a speed horse coming off a 11/8-mile allowance win at Saratoga.

Jockey Victor Espinoza will chase those targets through the backstretch before asking for the push-button speed that carried California Chrome two-thirds of the way to the Triple Crown. If it is there again - and no one really knows after a layoff - he will win easily. If not, there is another day still to come.

His work done for the morning, Chrome left the paddock area on Thursday, jogged around to the back side of the course, and stepped onto the path leading to the barns. People stopped and watched him go. Kentucky Derby winners don't pass all that often.

Steve Coburn liked what he had seen on the track. Nothing means nothing until Saturday, but the horse looked good. Coburn pushed away from the rail and walked toward the empty grandstand at Parx.

"Another place, another race," he said.