Jennie Rees | California Chrome could reach immortality

Thoughts on the Preakness (and Derby and Belmont):

My default position on any horse winning the Triple Crown is that if Spectacular Bid, a truly great racehorse, couldn't seal the deal in the Belmont then you can't assume any horse will.

But Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome has a lot going for him: versatile running style including real speed when needed and being superior amid a crop that isn't. He's also tough and durable. (Love the fact that the horses who finished 1-2 in the Preakness have a combined 23 starts, 12 for Chrome and 11 for Ride On Curlin.)

Still, I suspect one of those New York-based Derby horses who skipped the Preakness could prove the horse to win the June 7 Belmont Stakes, or maybe it will be Peter Pan winner Tonalist.

The best horse usually wins the Preakness. The same is not true of the Belmont.

Yet, California Chrome has handled everything thrown at him and has a jockey in Victor Espinoza who rides him flawlessly.

Trainer Art Sherman believes strongly they should add more time between Triple Crown races. If California Chrome wins, such change won't happen for generations, if then. And shouldn't.

The Triple Crown is harder than ever to win, in part because of the sheer numbers of horses running in the races. When Affirmed won the last Triple Crown in 1978, a total of 23 horses started the three races (some of them running more than one of the races). The field sizes just for the Derby and Preakness this year totaled 32, with a field of perhaps 10 or more expected for the Belmont.

But if California Chrome pulls it off, he goes into racing immortality and the last thing that needs to be done is to make the series easier, even if we have to wait another 36 years for another Triple Crown.

Let's see if this year's Derby-horse drought at Baltimore is an anomaly, because last year six horses from the Derby ran in the Preakness (albeit eight horses went straight from the Derby to the Belmont.)

• Churchill critics: Sports editor Creig Ewing had a great tweet that I tweaked: NY racing officials said California Chrome can wear a nose strip. Churchill officials would like Chrome's owner to wear a tongue tie.

Co-owner Steve Coburn's statements that Churchill Downs should take lessons in hospitality from the Preakness had a lot of people in agreement, though certainly not all.

Coburn's post-Preakness comments that he believed partner Perry Martin's elderly mother had trouble getting into the Derby winner's circle in a wheelchair would appear to be disputed by a Herald-Leader photo showing Churchill staff and Brantley Services ushers carrying her in.

Also, two days before the Preakness, the Detroit Free Press had a column in which Martin's brother described a scene that suggests the service was actually quite good.

Churchill Downs Inc. has made itself an easy target, with a series of PR disasters (see Calder, Fair Grounds, Wes Welker, owner Rick Porter, Secretariat jockey Ron Turcotte).

But the track that unabashedly bills itself as the world's most legendary racetrack should have the most legendary treatment of Derby horsemen, with no room for debate. Besides the fact that it's the right thing to do, the owners put up almost half the Derby purse with their entry and starting fees.

Louisville's Jim Shircliff, a partner in three Derby horses, said in a text that he had "10 on a 1 to 10 experience."

Aron Wellman, president of the Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners that owns third-place Danza, said he received a call from Churchill in the wake of Coburn's comments to get his thoughts on owner treatment.

"I think that Churchill Downs does some things extremely well as far as the Derby experience is concerned, and I think there are certainly areas where they can improve," Wellman said in response to a question.

He gives high praise to the volunteer hosts assigned to help out Oaks and Derby connections, calling them "tremendous."

Wellman continued: "I do think Churchill can be a little bit more accommodating in terms of what they do provide in terms of seating and access and sort of general hospitality to owners, in particular, while also understanding they have a business to run and they're stretched a million different ways."

Saying he didn't want to be "too critical," he said, "It is so clear to anyone and everyone that their MO is to maximize profits, and they're willing to do so at the risk of the experience of the people who put on the show."

• Nasalgate: New York quickly righted a wrong in changing its stewards' policy of banning nasal strips in thoroughbred racing within a day of trainer Art Sherman raising possibility that the owners might not run California Chrome in the Belmont if it wasn't allowed.

Does it look like New York capitulated to a popular Triple Crown aspirant and the bad press they were going to get? Maybe. But better that than to extend a bad policy with no basis behind it in the first pace.

The second-biggest winner behind CalChrome: Flair Equine Nasal Strips.

If the Shermans seemed stunned by the media blow-up over CalChrome's coughing and throat blister (that certainly didn't hamper him in the Derby), they also saw the flip side of media power in regards to the nasal strip flap.

• Value schmalue: That's what reader Harold Martin wrote, complaining about my Derby pick (Intense Holiday), where I opted to seek out value over a short-priced favorite. "Bull!" he wrote. "Don't you realize the idiots who believe in you took your advice on Derby? C. Chrome stood out — nothing compared. Shame!! Think of all the money you cost people because of your lack of sense."

Contact Jennie Rees at 502-582-4042. Follow her on Twitter @CJ_Jennie, Facebook.com/CJJennie and courier-journal.com/racingblog.