Reliving California Chrome's 2014 Preakness Win Entering American Pharoah's Hunt
For the second time in as many years, we have a dominant colt looking to take charge with back-to-back wins in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.
American Pharoah is arguably the best three-year-old in recent memory, but last year's Derby winner, California Chrome, captivated the nation. On May 17, Chrome essentially made the entire country stop and stare for two minutes as he attempted to take leg two of the Triple Crown.
While many are looking forward to watching AP run in the Preakness Saturday, it feels like the right time to take a few minutes and look back on what was one of the most exciting runnings of the Preakness in years.
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So, to do that, I'm going to run you through the entire race, including the pre-race buildup, the race itself, and the post-race impact we felt when Chrome did eventually win the race.
Let's get to it!
Pre-Race Buildup
Last summer, California Chrome took the racing world by storm.
The then-three-year-old son of Lucky Pulpit was dubbed "America's Horse" by his co-owner, Steve Coburn, and the fan reaction pretty much confirmed that status. Racing fans flocked to Pimlico in droves last year, and Chrome drew a record attendance, reaching a staggering 123,469 people, per Preakness.com.
Chrome drew the adoration of practically every fan in attendance, and it shows in the Twitter mentions from that day. If you follow through the tweets from that day, it'll take you through a good chunk of the pre-race buildup.
First, we have this tweet, which shows Chrome leaving the barn prior to the race:
Chrome is a lean and muscular colt, and he strutted his stuff all the way to the starting gate. Before that, though, the Art Sherman-trained colt had to get saddled up.
From there, Chrome was loaded into the starting gate—he started from the four hole—and the race was set to begin.
From Gate to Wire
Chrome was downright fantastic once the gates opened up. Under the steady hand of Victor Espinoza, Chrome broke cleanly from the gate, jumping out in front of every horse not named Pablo Del Monte.
Thanks to his fast start, Chrome and Espinoza put themselves in great position, riding two wide through the first turn. The first quarter went in a modest 23.56 seconds, and Chrome sat in third behind Pablo Del Monte and Ria Antonia.
After a half-mile in 46.85 seconds, Chrome was sitting three lengths back of the leading group. This is where Chrome is at his best, though. The young colt sat back, rated and Espinoza planned out their move.
Three quarters went in 1:11.06 (some very modest fractions) and, as seen in the video below, when the field turned for home, Chrome had already gained the lead and was busy fighting off an early charge from Luis Contreras and Social Inclusion.
By the time they entered the stretch run, Cali Chrome had a gaudy three-length lead, but Joel Rosario and Ride on Curlin weren't going to make things easy.
The two made a late run at Chrome, but an Eclipse Award Horse of the Year winner doesn't go down that easily, and Chrome was able to stave off an upset, logging a 1.5-length victory.
Post-Race Impact
Chrome sent even the most casual of horse racing fans into a frenzy with his win in the Preakness, and the social media world felt the impact of his win.
This link is the "California Chrome Preakness" thread from Twitter. If you start searching through it now, you might get to the post-race mentions by post time for the 140th Preakness Stakes.
Chrome isn't the best horse in the world—heck, he may not have even been the best three-year-old (I still think Shared Belief got hosed with the Eclipse Award voting)—but he was excitement in its purest form. People loved this colt, and they loved his flashy, yet "everyday joe" co-owner, Steve Coburn.
Coburn may have had as much to do with the California Chrome appeal as the actual horse himself. The man who is, unfortunately, known best for his post-loss interview following the Belmont Stakes took every chance possible to get in front of a camera and let the world know that he had the best horse in the world.
This hype carried itself over to the Belmont Stakes, where fans again turned out in droves. The Belmont drew a six-figure crowd (102,199 in total), and the atmosphere was absolutely insane.
I've been to several Belmont Stakes day race cards, but none compared to last year's, and we have Chrome to thank for that.
That said, if American Pharoah wins the Preakness and heads to Belmont with a chance to take home the first Triple Crown since 1978, the racing community might literally erupt.
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