CALIFORNIA CROME KEEPS THE DREAM ALIVE

By Graham Potter | Monday, May 5, 2014

If you’ve got a ticket, you’ve got a chance.

Ask Perry Martin and Steve Coburn. The two men paid $8000(US) for a mare and put her to a $2500 stallion. The mare, perhaps aptly named given the eventual outcome, was called Love The Chase but, at the time, as a mere one time winner, the prospects of the mating producing anything of substance was not particularly encouraging. In fact it reportedly prompted one trainer to suggest Martin and Coburn were ‘dumb asses’ for entering the racing arena.

That didn’t deter Martin and Coburn in any way. In fact they took that description and ran with it naming their one horse racing operation DAP Racing (or Dumb Ass Partners) and, for good measure, they registered colours that included the image of a donkey.

The mare foaled producing a colt and, in time, Martin and Coburn both regular working men gave the horse to an elderly trainer, Art Sherman to train and continued with their daily living routine.

But what happened next was certainly not anything routine and the laugh, when it came, was certainly not on them.

Their horse called California Chrome was going to see to that.

California Chrome had already won four races in succession when he left his home state of California for the first time to take on the intimidating challenge that takes place on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs.

California Crome had won those four races in a manner which carried him to the top of the betting boards for what is arguably the world most famous race - the Kentucky Derby - and in 123.66 seconds of action the chestnut colt with the ordinary pedigree and the looked down upon price tag, won the 140th renewal of the Derby in runaway fashion, dominating his rivals in no uncertain terms in the home straight to score a famous victory in front of the second largest crowd (164 096) in the history of the race.

No Sheiks in sight. No ‘racing royalty’ in play.

All the big money players were left floundering down the track somewhere as an eighty-seven-year-old trainer, having his first runner in a race, completed the heart-warming story which really goes back to once again cement the foundation on which racing is built, namely that dreams are worth having in this game because they can come true.

But the dream for Martin and Coburn has not ended yet.

The Kentucky Derby was the first leg of the famed Triple Crown. The second leg is the Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore with the final leg, the Belmont Stakes, scheduled for New York on June 7.

Obviously only one horse can win it after the first leg has been run but not every Kentucky Derby winner takes up that option because the Triple Crown is an immensely intense programme, emphasised by the fact that the last horse to win it was Affirmed back in 1978, no less than thirty-six years ago.

California Crome will be pressing on.

"We'll see you all in Maryland,” said Coburn, “and then we’ll see you in New York,” as the dream continues.

Whatever happens in the Preakness, the value of California Crome is sure to again be a point of focus.

After the colt’s Santa Anita Derby win on April 5, Martin and Coburn were offered $6 million for a fifty-one percent controlling interest in the colt.

They turned it down.

“That would mean they were running under their colours, gone to a new trainer. We would have been out in the background,” said Coburn. “Probably moved him out of California, which is Los Alamitos, which he loves. It wasn’t tough for us to say no.”

New offers might test their resilience.

In conclusion, a couple of Derby facts:

*It was the second win in the race for California Crome’s jockey Victor Espinoza.
*It was the California Crome’s fifth straight win.
*California Crome became just the fourth horse from *California to win the Derby and the first since Decidedly in 1962.
*California Crome first prize stake money earned was $1 442 800.
*Stake money was paid down to sixth place: $400 000 (second); $200 000 (third); $100 000 (fourth); $60 000 (fifth).
*According to KentuckyDerby.com $35,081,211.39 was wagered on the race.