Taylor Made Farm’s and Perry Martin’s California Chrome racked up his seventh lifetime Grade 1 win with another dominating performance in Saturday’s $300,000 Awesome Again S. (G1), winning by 2 1/4-lengths in his final tune-up for next month’s Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).

The two-time Eclipse Award winner and 2014 Horse of the Year is still undefeated in 2016, winning all six of his starts, including the Dubai World Cup (G1) and Pacific Classic (G1).

Ridden as usual by Victor Espinoza, California Chrome went to the front as usual, with Dortmund giving chase. After a half-mile in :46.08, California Chrome began to pull away and, despite being under a hand ride the whole way, widened his margin at will. The final time for the nine furlongs was 1:48.07, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 112, his third straight above 110.

“I’m looking forward to (the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Classic), and hope everything goes according to plan. Each race seems a little bit better – it’s a little scary,” said trainer Art Sherman.
Sherman continued: “It’s a dream come true. I never had the ability to buy the most expensive horses. This is just like a gift from…I don’t know where. Maybe it was just my time to shine. I’m enjoying it, and I’ll enjoy seeing his babies years from now.”
Taylor Made’s Duncan Taylor feels similarly honored to have such a horse, who will join the Taylor Made stallion roster upon his retirement. “It feels just unbelievable. We’re just blessed to have this opportunity to race this horse. We’re usually serving the people that own these kinds of horses, we’re not in the position ourselves, so we bought this horse to breed but everything unfolded so we decided to keep running him. We’re very fortunate. You couldn’t ever imagine having something like this happen. There’s plenty of competition and they’re not going to give it to us, we’re going to have to earn it.”
California Chrome’s record now stands at 15-3-1 in 24 starts, with his all-time earnings record now at $13,432,650.