Trainer Art Sherman not worried about Meydan’s dirt as California Chrome’s speed and style could place him anywhere

California Chrome out with his work rider Willie Delgado on Meydan’s dirt track, a surface that does not worry trainer Art Sherman. ‘He can about run on any kind of track,’ Sherman says. Neville Hopwood / Racingfotos.com

Not many people who are 78 years old hold the same enthusiasm for life as Art Sherman, and with so much crammed into his days now it is easy to understand why.

Sherman is a father, a grandfather, a husband and the trainer of the most famous active racehorse on the planet in California Chrome, America’s horse of the year and favourite to win Saturday’s Dubai World Cup.
Sherman was scheduled to embark on Sunday on his first trip to Dubai in anticipation of a race that could result in him becoming the oldest trainer, by some distance, to win the US$10 million (Dh36.7m) feature.
Some horsemen make the journey to Dubai for the size of the purse. Others travel in the hope of gaining international recognition.
However, for Sherman, it is much simpler than that.
Perry Martin and Steve Coburn, California Chrome’s owners and breeders, want their horse to compete with the best, and that meant the World Cup.
Sherman did not particularly want to come, but if there was one aspect that has helped turn his thoughts about Dubai from indifference to excitement, it is that Meydan Racecourse could be filled with 80,000 spectators when the gates open for the final race.
Sherman has been in racing since he was 17, after a customer in his father’s barber shop believed his 1.57-metre frame would be perfect for a life in the saddle.
What continues to drive the former exercise rider of 1955 Kentucky Derby winner Swaps is the crowds, and their adulation of thoroughbred champions.
Churchill Downs held 164,906 racegoers when California Chrome won the Kentucky Derby last year, and although Meydan will be lucky to attract half that on Saturday, Sherman can barely wait for the buzz from what is the world’s largest grandstand built for racing.
“When I was a kid, I remember the crowds,” Sherman said in a teleconference call, becoming more animated as he warmed to his theme. “I remember when Swaps won the Hollywood Gold Cup and maybe there were 70,000 people.
“I miss that screaming and the hollering. You don’t see that often now in America. Hardly anybody wants to go and get on the freeway … But there’s nothing like being there.
“It was the biggest joy for me when California Chrome won the Hollywood Derby at Del Mar in November. I went to the paddock and there were around 25,000 screaming his name: ‘Chrome! Chrome! Chrome!’ And it was like, wow, look at these people that just love this horse, you know what I mean?
“I miss that in racing. I just love to see people enjoy the sport, and hope it can continue for my kids when I’m not around. The money part, well, you can only use so much money. It’s not important to me.”
California Chrome spearheads a two-pronged American challenge in the main event, along with 2013 Donn Handiap winner Lea, on Meydan’s new, dirt surface. This a year after not one American horse travelled to Dubai to participate in the most lucrative prize in the sport.
California Chrome, with his big white blaze and four white socks, has matured over the winter and has filled his frame.
He is a bigger and stronger specimen to the one that thrilled America last season en route to securing horse of the year honours. And yet he faltered, when pitted against Shared Belief in the San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita in February on his first start of the year.
California Chrome had been beaten before, but it was how he surrendered to the current best horse in America that made the defeat so hard to stomach. Prior to the San Antonio, California Chrome had never lost a stretch battle. If he was in the lead, he won.