Ride On Curlin to accompany champion to Belmont
BALTIMORE – Ride On Curlin walked around Pimlico’s Preakness Stakes barn shedrow Sunday morning, with California Chrome following in his hoofsteps.
“I finally got in front of California Chrome,” joked Billy Gowan, Ride On Curlin’s trainer, who was walking the Preakness runner-up.
Through California Chrome’s victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, Ride On Curlin has been among those in his wake throughout. The Churchill Downs-based colt has cut at his deficit, however, from 6¾ lengths when seventh in the Derby to Saturday’s 1½ lengths in the Preakness.
Now both are advancing to the June 7 Belmont Stakes, the 1½-mile Triple Crown finale at New York’s Belmont Park.
Gowan and California Chrome’s trainer, Art Sherman, became such good friends during the five-day run-up to the Preakness that their stable stars will be on the same van Tuesday to Belmont and housed in the same barn. (They were on separate vans from Churchill Downs to Lexington to catch the equine charter to Baltimore last Monday, and then on different vans to Pimlico, which is not unusual for horses from different outfits.)
Gowan and Sherman showed up within minutes of one another shortly before 6 a.m. at the Preakness barn, regaling the media while describing their Preakness night.
The Sherman and Gowan clans were part of the lively gathering in the nearby Radisson Hotel. at Cross Keys bar that spilled into the lobby, including dancing and jiving to the O’Jays’ hit song “Love Train.” (Omen alert: That song came out in 1973, year of Triple Crown winner Secretariat.)
Reports have it that the 77-year-old Sherman even played a tambourine.
“Oh, man, we had more fun with them people,” Sherman said. “They were really doing their number, still have that old step in them.”
“I was doing the same thing I was doing in that race: following you,” Gowan said to Sherman.
“Your horse ran a terrific race,” Sherman told Gowan. “I was happy for you. It’s kind of fun because we’re stablemates. I told people going in, ‘You better make an exacta box.’”
“I really believed that all week,” Gowan said. “The way his horse was training and my horse was training.”
Both horses came out of the Preakness is fine shape, their trainers said.
Sherman is flying back to California Monday, leaving California Chrome in the care of his son and assistant, Alan. Art Sherman says he needs to get back to his stable of 16 or so. That includes a 2-year-old son of California Chrome’s sire, Lucky Pulpit, named Kristi’s Copilot, who last week won his debut at 4½ furlongs at Santa Anita.
“He acts like a good one,” Sherman said. “Won easy. … Hey, listen, that’s what it’s all about: looking for them young horses and hoping you can come up with another.”
“Darn, I’m going to have to go buy me a Lucky Pulpit,” Gowan said. “That sucker looks like he’s a pretty good stallion.”
While Ride On Curlin will head to New York with exercise rider Bryan Beccia and groom Bridget Lambert, Gowan is headed back to Louisville and his three other horses.
Of Ride On Curlin, he said, “He came out of the race unbelievably good. He ate everything in his feed tub; he’s bouncing around here and his legs are ice-cold. I like getting a little frostbite on my hands when I feel them legs.”
Gowan said it’s been “great fun” being on the Triple Crown trail.
“For a second there about the eighth pole, I thought we were going to get to him,” he said. “He never backed up. You’ve got to give a lot of credit to that horse.
“… Hey, I’m a racing fan, too. If I can’t win the Belmont, I dang sure want to see a Triple Crown.”
•More on Belmont: Social Inclusion, third in the Preakness in his fourth start, is headed to New York on Friday for either the Belmont, Woody Stephens at seven-eighths of a mile against 3-year-olds or the Metropolitan Mile against older horses.
“We’re very happy that he ran with his heart,” said owner Ron Sanchez. “He didn’t really have a clean trip. He had a little trouble in the starting gate, in his stall, and after that he didn’t break well. He bumped twice with California Chrome and on the first turn he got the worst of the bumping. The horse stalked the pace and made a good run, but California Chrome took off.”
General a Rod, who finished fourth and a head out of third, is possible but not definite for the Belmont. Jack Wolf of Louisville, the managing partner in the Starlight Racing partnership, said he would confer with trainer Mike Maker and co-owner Skychai Racing.
“I would like to run him in the Belmont,” he said. “I’m a racing fan first and an owner second, and I’d like to see a Triple Crown. I’d like to win the Belmont, too.”
Preakness fifth-place finisher Ring Weekend also is possible for the Belmont, while eighth-place Kid Cruz is “50-50,” said trainer Linda Rice.
•Martin cashes in: Sherman said co-owner and breeder Perry Martin, who avoids the spotlight, spent Preakness weekend in Las Vegas collecting $150,000 for a $500 Kentucky Derby future wager on California Chrome at 300-1.
“So I think he was having a good time,” Sherman said.
Co-owner Steve Coburn said after the Preakness that difficulties his partner had at Churchill Downs for the Derby, including getting his elderly mother into the winner’s circle, was a factor in Martin not going to Baltimore. He said Churchill should take lessons from the Maryland Jockey Club.
“I don’t know if he’ll be welcome that much at Churchill Downs, though,” Sherman joked of Coburn. “He was a little verbal. I hope they’re still making my (Derby) ring.”