Racing: Colt set for elusive Triple Crown

A few hours after the Investec Derby at Epsom, in New York, a chestnut colt with four white feet and a white blaze called California Chrome will attempt to become the first horse since the Steve Cauthen-ridden Affirmed in 1978 to win the US Triple Crown when he lines up for the Belmont Stakes tomorrow.

The first two legs, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, are already in the bag and 100,000 are expected to turn out to see if the rags-to-riches colt is as effective over the gruelling mile-and-a-half around the sweeping bends of Belmont, against a field which includes several fresher rivals, as he was over the tighter mile-and-a-quarter of Churchill Downs and Pimlico.

Since Affirmed, 11 horses have won the first two but failed in the Belmont. However, should California Chrome succeed tomorrow, he will become one of the biggest stars of American sport and feted wherever he goes during the rest of his career, like a Hollywood A-lister.

It being America, it will be Frankel to the power of 10.

California Chrome's story and its timing, coming when American racing finds itself on the back foot on a number of fronts, mainly welfare related, is immaculate. Rags to riches does not even begin to touch it.

He cost his owner-breeders, Perry Martin and Steve Coburn, who describe themselves as "everyday people", US$10,000 to produce - US$8000 to buy the mare and US$2000 for her trip to the stallion Lucky Pulpit.

At the sale where they purchased the mare someone was overheard remarking that only a "dumb-ass would buy" her so they formed DAP Racing - Dumb-Ass Racing - which is embroidered on to their purple colours. When the owners wanted a name for him, they and their wives met in a restaurant equidistant between their two homes, all wrote a name on a piece of paper and asked the waitress to pick one out of Coburn's cowboy hat. "Chrome" is Californian slang for the white on a horse.

In the Kentucky Derby the name on his number cloth was misspelt "Califorina Chrome" but so superstitious are horsemen that his connections asked the Pimlico authorities to repeat it for the Preakness, and Belmont will follow suit tomorrow.

His trainer is Art Sherman, 77, whose biggest claim to fame hitherto was riding work on Swaps, the 1955 Kentucky Derby winner, as an 18-year-old. He is a small-time, old-school trainer but since Hollywood Park closed has kept his string at Los Alamitos Racecourse, predominantly a quarter horse track in Los Angeles - not the sort of place you would expect to find a Triple Crown winner.

The one man in the equation who has seen it all before is jockey Victor Espinoza, who won the first two legs on War Emblem in 2002, before coming unstuck in the Belmont. The Mexican is unbeaten in six starts on the colt dating back to December.

He eased California Chrome down for a comfortable victory in the Derby and then went on a long way out in the Preakness for another commanding performance.

But, as Graham Motion, the English-born trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, said this week, it is going to be very difficult. "The two things that make the Triple Crown so difficult are the timing of the races [the third is only five weeks after the first] and, now, because you get a full field in each Triple Crown race.

"In the old days, you probably only got five or six in the Belmont, but he will face a full field so you then have to not only have the best horse but the best trip."

The dangers include the Christophe Clement-trained Tonalist, who won the Belmont Trial, the Peter Pan Stakes, by four lengths, Commanding Curve, a staying-on runner in the Kentucky Derby, who missed the Preakness, Ride On Curlin, runner-up in the Preakness, and Wicked Strong.

"American racing has spent a long time waiting for it to happen," Motion added. "And he is being seen as a saviour.

"He has certainly brought a lot of attention to the sport already but, in the big scheme of American racing, I'm not sure how long the feel-good factor would last. It's an extraordinary amount of pressure on his connections.

"It's not going to be easy and, for certain, it will be a much tougher race than the Preakness. But how can you not root for the horse?" Telegraph Group Ltd