D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 | I S S U E 1 | V O L 1 Horse Racing B Y : R E A G A N J E N N I N G S P E R I O D : 5 Breeders’ Cup: Arrogate’s Win Ends California Chrome’s Perfect Year By: Joe Drape Nov. 5, 2016 Internet Article 1-Sequence ARCADIA, Calif. — The 33rd running of the Breeders’ Cup Classic was supposed to be the coronation of California Chrome, widely regarded as not only the best horse on the planet but also one of the most beloved. He is the Horatio Alger of the equine set, a determined athlete who outran his modest pedigree and endured the chaos often foisted upon him by the humans around him. Happy endings, however, are hard to come by at the racetrack, especially when there is a $6 million purse on the line, as there was on Saturday at Santa Anita Park for the Classic. Such a purse is catnip for deep-pocketed owners and the Hall of Fame trainers they employ. Exhibit A is Juddmonte Farms, the name under which members of the royal family of Saudi Arabia breed and race some of the most expensive and exquisite horses in the world. Among those horses is Arrogate, a late-developing 3-year-old whom the Saudi royal family paid $550,000 for as a yearling and parked in the barn of Bob Baffert, one of America’s most successful trainers, who bounces slow horses from his barn at a rate that would make “Dancing With the Stars” contestants dizzy. How good is Baffert? Two words: American Pharoah, a colt who last year became the first Triple Crown champion in 37 years and only the 12th in history. How good? In August, Arrogate showed up in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for the Travers Stakes as an 11-1 outsider and left not only with the trophy but also with the record for the fastest mile and a quarter in more than 150 years of racing at the Spa. Arrogate’s dramatic upset of California Chrome on Saturday punctuated just how good they both are. Art Sherman, the 79-year-old trainer of California Chrome, knew what he was up against. He is a racetracker, a man who as a teenager slept in a boxcar from California to Louisville, Ky., with a colt named Swaps who, once they arrived, won the Kentucky Derby. He has never had more than a couple of dozen horses, and he had to work part time as a mutuel clerk during some of his barn’s leaner times. Sherman loves his horse, the best one that he has ever had and probably ever will. Chrome, as he is known, came to Santa Anita a perfect 6 for 6 this year after a globe-trotting campaign that took him to the desert of Dubai and to the beach party that is Del Mar in Southern California. His more than $13 million in purse earnings made him the richest horse in the history of North America. Sherman will probably never be in the Hall of Fame, but thanks to Chrome, he will forever be known as the trainer of a Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Dubai World Cup winner. He is the first to say that Chrome — whose name was pulled from a cowboy hat, combining his birthplace with the term used by horse people for the flashes of white on a horse — owes him nothing. “I think Chrome’s going to run a race that everybody is going to admire,” Sherman said before the race. California Chrome did, too. His rider, Victor Espinoza, gunned him from the gate and led a field of eight rivals around the first turn, down the backstretch and into the stretch as if he were the grand marshal at the Thanksgiving Day parade. Chrome’s ears were pricked up, and he looked as if he were running by himself — controlled, relaxed and wickedly fast. In the clubhouse, Baffert thought Arrogate had lost. “When Chrome was out there cruising, I thought, ‘No way he’s going to catch him; he’s going to run second,’” Baffert said. But Arrogate’s rider, Mike Smith, knew better. He may have been seven lengths behind California Chrome entering the stretch, but Smith had not asked his colt to turn it on yet. Smith started scrubbing on Arrogate’s neck and smooching in his ear, coaxing the colt to find that supercharged gear. He did. Arrogate bounded down the lane as if he were on a trampoline, his strides widening, his momentum matching a runaway steamroller on a downhill slope. “It was incredible,” Smith said. “I’m at a loss for words.” Sherman was not. He watched Arrogate get his head to Chrome’s hip and then his neck and then pass him altogether yards before the finish line. “He ran his race but just got beat in those last couple of jumps,” Sherman said. “That winner is the real McCoy.” The record books will reflect that, yes, Arrogate caught Chrome at the wire of the mile-and-a-quarter race. He won it by a half a length, in 2 minutes 0.11 of a second. The $3.3 million made his rich owners, Juddmonte Farms, richer. It gave Baffert his third consecutive victory in one of the world’s most prestigious races: American Pharoah won it last year and Bayern the year before. Arrogate was the 8-to-5 second choice and paid his backers $5.40 for a $2 bet. But Sherman was hardly heartbroken. He still loves his horse, the best he has ever trained, and knows that old Chrome ran his heart out. This ending was happy enough. “We had no excuses,” he said. “He’s been so good all year long, but it just shows that you can’t win every race.” Arrogate inching past California Chrome to win the Breeder's Cup 19 On June 6, 2015, there was a crowd estimated to be around 90,000 at Belmont Park to seeV ifi Acmtoerric Eans Pphainrooahz aco Culde slweeberpa tthien Tgri ptlhe eC roWwnin. There had not been a Triple Crown winner in thirty-seven years, so everyone was on the very edge of their seat. A mThe heorsres iloacdead innto thPe shtartaing rgaate, aondh as tThey ablewk thee sstar t twhistle th e gates opened. American Pharoah was late coming out of the starting gate, and there was a single seTconrd oif pworlrye in thCe eyreso of wthe cnrowd. But American Pharaoh quickly made up for lost time, and made his way past all seven of his rivals. Original Article 1-Sequence After the first turn, Materiality was right behind American Pharoah for about a mile, but American Pharoah found another gear and took off leaving Materialit1y9 with a mouth full of dust. However, American Pharaoh was not in the clear yet. Catching up rapidly on the outside was Frosted, but American Pharaoh widened his stride as if he were a rubber band and snapped off to the finish line. As American Pharoah crossed the finish line five and a half lengths ahead, Espinoza, American Pharoah’s jockey finally allowed a smile and a celebration that brought cheering, happiness, and tears to people in the crowd. American Pharaoh had become the twelfth horse to win the Triple Crown, and he won it in 2 minutes 26.65 seconds. American Pharaoh on the Home Stretch Victory Lap after Winning the Triple Crown A Jockey Rises After Hard Fall From Grace By RYAN GOLDBERG OCT. 2, Internet Article 2- Description 2015 Frankie Dettori does not often find himself at a loss for words. But he did recently, when he recalled his Epsom Derby triumph in June aboard Golden Horn. “When I got to the furlong marker and I knew I was going to win, these enormous emotions . .” he said, pausing before adding, “It’s very hard to explain.” That 236th running of the Derby at Epsom in England will long be remembered as Dettori’s. Before that, his most recent Derby mount had been in 2011, and in between his career had seemed headed off the rails. Dettori, a star jockey, had ended his 18-year association with the Godolphin Stable in the fall of 2012, and soon after, in France, he tested positive for cocaine. When he returned in 2013 after a six-month suspension, he was written off in some quarters. But, Dettori said, “To finish my career like that wasn’t my plan.” Golden Horn’s win was a declaration of Dettori’s return to the top. He punched the air as the colt, clear of the runner-up Jack Hobbs, stretched for the finish. Later, before a cheering crowd of 125,000, Dettori leapt off the horse in his trademark dismount. “I’ve had a colorful life, and I’m not finished yet,” Dettori, 44, said after the race, before he and John Gosden, Golden Horn’s trainer, were greeted by Queen Elizabeth II. But Dettori was pressed for time: He was scheduled to ride at Lingfield Park Racecourse in Surrey that night. “I said, ‘Excuse me, ma’am, but I have to go to Lingfield,’ ” he recalled telling the queen. Three hours later, he won again, before a crowd of 7,644, — Lingfield’s largest since at least 1989 — aboard an odds-on maiden for the Al Shaqab Stable of Sheikh Joaan al-Thani. Dettori making his traditional victory dismount after winning the Qipco Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown racecourse in Dublin last month.