Arrogate Spoils California Chrome’s Last Race, at Pegasus World Cup
By MELISSA HOPPERTJAN. 28, 2017
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — In the end, it was Arrogate who turned in the kind of performance that California Chrome had become known for during his storybook career.
Arrogate won the richest race ever run, the inaugural $12 million Pegasus World Cup, on Saturday at Gulfstream Park by four and three-quarters lengths to earn a $7 million first-place check and deny his rival, the retiring California Chrome, in his bid to go out on top as the highest-earning thoroughbred in history.
With the Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith aboard, Arrogate broke from the rail and quickly settled in while California Chrome broke from the outside post and immediately had to head inside to make up ground. Soon they were neck and neck, stalking the leaders, and the showdown that everyone had been expecting appeared to be on as they came around the far turn.
But it was soon apparent that California Chrome would not turn in the kind of performance that his legions of fans, from California to the United Arab Emirates, had come to expect.
Under the South Florida sunshine, Arrogate found a new gear and motored away to win the mile-and-an-eighth race in 1 minute 47.61 seconds over a fast track. He returned $3.80 on a $2 bet to win.
“Once I got out going into the far turn, I knew we were going to be very tough to beat,” Smith said. “He had a lot of run today, and I was very happy. As far as winning the world’s richest race, I’m absolutely numb.”
A two-time horse of the year, California Chrome was eased in the stretch by his longtime jockey, Victor Espinoza, and finished ninth. He nonetheless ended his remarkable career as the highest-earning thoroughbred in North American history, with $14,752,650 in winnings. (Several Japanese horses have earned more.)
Arrogate’s normally loquacious trainer, Bob Baffert, was elated yet subdued after the race. He, too, had hoped to see a sequel to the duel between Arrogate and California Chrome in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November.
“I kept waiting for the matchup with Chrome, but he just didn’t bring his race today,” Baffert said, adding, “That’s not the Chrome I know.”
California Chrome’s 80-year-old trainer, Art Sherman, was at a loss. “This is the first bad race he’s ever run for us,” he said while wondering if there was something amiss physically with his horse.
His jockey may have had the simplest explanation. “There wasn’t enough gas in there,” Espinoza said. “He was empty.”
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Shaman Ghost, raced by Gulfstream Park’s owner, Frank Stronach, finished second, earning $1.75 million. Neolithic finished third for a $1 million share.
Unlike the Dubai World Cup and other major global stakes races, the Pegasus had a purse provided entirely by entry fees, with owners shelling out $1 million for a spot in the starting gate, making it more like a poker game than a horse race.
Without such a lucrative event, the 6-year-old California Chrome would have already been in the breeding shed at Taylor Made Farm, preparing to earn $40,000 per live foal that stands and nurses.
Arrogate, meanwhile, would have been preparing for his 4-year-old campaign, with the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Classic as his main target after an outstanding 2016 in which he ascended in his own right, not merely as the foil in Chrome’s bid for a perfect season.
In August at Saratoga Race Course, Arrogate put on a performance for the ages, winning the Travers Stakes by 13 ½ lengths in 1:59.36, a track record for the mile-and-a-quarter distance. Then, in the thrilling Breeders’ Cup Classic, Arrogate ran down California Chrome in the stretch to win by a half-length.
But Arrogate did not even have a spot in the Pegasus, the brainchild of Stronach, until after the Breeders’ Cup. His owner, Juddmonte Farms, had to buy Coolmore’s spot in the starting gate, for an undisclosed sum.
The other finishers each received $250,000, and participants will also split earnings from sponsorships and wagers on the race, including multirace bets. The 12-race program amassed more than $40 million in handle, most likely enough to ensure that the fourth through 12th finishers will earn back at least half their entry fees. All participants retain the right of first refusal for a spot in next year’s event.
This year’s race closed the book on California Chrome’s remarkable career, in which he came from modest beginnings to secure victories in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the $10 million Dubai World Cup.
“It’s not really unbelievable to me what he’s been able to accomplish,” said Duncan Taylor, an owner of Chrome and the president of Taylor Made. “He’s a very attractive horse; he’s got charisma; he has the rags-to-riches story. People can relate to that.”
Before Chrome, Sherman had never conditioned a contender in a Triple Crown race. But Chrome, who was bred from an $8,000 mare and a middling sire whose services at the time cost only $2,000, romped to victory in the 2014 Kentucky Derby, making Sherman the oldest trainer to have won the sport’s most prestigious race. Two weeks later, Chrome won again in the Preakness Stakes, but his Triple Crown quest ended with a thud at the Belmont Stakes when he was banged up leaving the gate and finished fourth.
Although he fell short of a Triple Crown, California Chrome’s success endeared his Everyman owners, Perry and Denise Martin and Steve and Carolyn Coburn, to many. (The Coburns sold their share to Taylor Made in 2015.) His performance also revitalized Espinoza’s career, which had been on a downswing. Although he had won more than 3,000 races, mounts were harder to come by for Espinoza, an aging rider from Mexico who was long past his prime. But Chrome’s success allowed Espinoza to pick up the mount on another superstar horse, American Pharoah.
California Chrome will leave behind a landscape that encourages owners to keep stars on the track instead of retiring them to the breeding shed.
“The peak of these horses’ popularity would be in their final years because people have had enough time to become very familiar with who they are and how brilliant they are, and what amazing personalities and characters they are,” said Garrett O’Rourke, the manager of Juddmonte. “That’s what California Chrome has created, and we all admire what a magnificent specimen he is.”
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