edited Del Mar press release

Horse of the Year California Chrome worked five furlongs in a breeze of :59.20 Saturday morning Del Mar in anticipation of his start in the $200,000 San Diego H. (G2) on July 23.

The time was the fastest of 83 horses that covered the five furlongs.

Wearing his usual blinkers and with regular exercise rider Dihigi Gladney in the irons, California Chrome went through officially-timed splits of :12, :23.80, :35.60 and :46.80 and galloped out another furlong in 1:13.

“He’s got his game face on,” trainer Art Sherman said afterward. “He’s a different horse when he’s getting ready to run. Dihigi had plenty of horse when he came by me. I’m very pleased with what I saw.”

“It was a really good work and he likes this track,” Gladney said. “I’ve worked other horses on it and thought it was a little heavy. But he handled it easy. I looked at my watch (during the work) and the fractions were good and I wasn’t doing anything, so I just let him go on.

“I had to take him off the rail a little to slow him down and, you’re right, I was almost standing up at the finish line.”

California Chrome is expected to meet about a half-dozen rivals next week in the San Diego at a mile and one-sixteenth, his first start since he captured the $10 million Dubai World Cup (G1) on March 26.