NEWMARKET, ENGLAND // Art Sherman has underlined that William Buick is the right man to ride California Chrome at Royal Ascot in preference to Victor Espinoza next week.
Buick rode California Chrome for the first time yesterday when the pair underwent a piece of work in preparation for the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes next Wednesday.
California Chrome walked the mile from Rae Guest’s stables under regular work rider Robbie Mills to Newmarket racecourse, before Buick took to the saddle to partner America’s Horse of the Year over 1,200 metres on the Watered Gallop.
Halfway through California Chrome cruised up along side his unnamed work companion and an in a matter of strides went past to go away at the finish to highlight his well-being.
Espinoza has ridden last season’s Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner the last 12 times, including when Buick beat them into second on Prince Bishop in the Dubai World Cup in March.
“Victor told me that we’d be better off with a local jockey,” Sherman said.
“When you are a rider, you need to know when to make your move. It would be out of his normal type of ride.”
Espinoza rode five times at Royal Ascot last year and won the Windsor Castle Stakes on Wesley Ward’s Hootenanny, who arrived from America as part of Ward’s 10-strong Royal Ascot team yesterday.
Sherman said the two are very different horses.
“Wesley’s two year old just came out of the gate and went,” he said.
“This will be different and I am happy to have William Buick up.”
It was the first time that Sherman had seen California Chrome since Dubai.
Following the world’s most valuable race, he made it clear the decision by owner Perry Martin to send California Chrome to Britain was against his wishes, preferring to see the horse return to his Los Alamitos base in California.
It is a viewpoint that he clearly maintains, and was at pains to point out how difficult the test ahead is.
California Chrome will become only the second Kentucky Derby winner to appear at Royal Ascot since Omaha, who was denied in the shadow of the post in the Ascot Gold Cup in 1936. Animal Kingdom two seasons ago was 11th in the Queen Anne Stakes.
“He has never turned right, always left,” Sherman said of California Chrome going 2,000 metres around Ascot’s right-hand bend.
“I am hoping the traffic doesn’t prove a problem for him, too.
“Even having to drive on the right-hand side here, it all looks a little different to me. I think he is a good enough horse to adapt to anything, though.”
“If he finished in the money I would be so privileged. The best horses in the world are here, I watched the tapes and seeing the monster runners that they have here – this is the real McCoy. It is going to be quite a challenge.”
The Prince Of Wales’s Stakes has attracted a stellar field, with Australian Derby winner Criterion and Japan’s Spielberg also in the line-up for the £525,000 (Dh2.9 million) Group 1 event.
Both were out on the gallops yesterday, but it was racing manager Nobutaka Tada who proved to be the most confident of the two connections.
Spielberg marked himself as a high-class colt when he beat last season’s Dubai Sheema Classic winner Gentildonna in the Tenno Sho in November. He was then third to Epiphaneia and last year’s Dubai Duty Free winner Just A Way in the Japan Cup a month later.
He warmed up for Ascot by finishing fifth on soft ground in a Grade 2 in April. He will be ridden by Christophe Soumillon.
“At 2,000m he has not showed any limitation,” Tada said.
“He is still improving. We don’t know how good he is. He could be a much better horse than we expected.”
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