California Chrome owner Steve Coburn is pissed at Belmont Stakes winner’s owner
It was not to be. There would be no Triple Crown. California Chrome just did not have it today. California Chrome was always in the game during the entire run. In the final turn California Chrome just did not have the kick to propel him past the leaders at the finish. It was close but no cigar.
The owner of California Chrome, Steve Coburn, did not let his displeasure go unnoticed. When asked for his thoughts by the reporter, Steve Coburn said the following.
“I thought he was gaining ground,” Steve Coburn said. “He didn’t have it in him apparently. You know what he has been in three, this is his third big race. These other horses, they always sit them out. They sit them out and try to upset the … I will never see, I am sixty one years old. I will never see in my lifetime another Triple Crown because the way they do this. It’s not fair to these horses that have been in the game since day one. I look at it this way. If you can’t make enough points to get into the Kentucky Derby, you can’t run in the other two races.”
Steve Coburn went on to say it is not fair to the other horses that have been running their guts out. “This is a coward’s way out in my opinion, “Steve Coburn said. “This is a coward’s way out.” Coburn got so rattled in the interview the woman he was next to apparently attempted to tone him down. He snapped back at her.
According to the AP,
Conditions seemed aligned for the Triple Crown drought to end. California Chrome seemed to thrive during his three-week stay at Belmont Park. His chestnut coat gleamed and he gained weight after the Preakness on May 17. His owners, trainer and jockey oozed confidence. And so did the bettors, who made him the overwhelming favorite in the Belmont.
But this fairy tale didn’t have a happy ending.
Espinoza lost his second chance at a Triple Crown. He was aboard War Emblem in 2002, when that colt stumbled at the start of the Belmont and lost all chance.
Art Sherman, the 77-year-old trainer of California Chrome, had said beforehand that his colt didn’t need to win another race because he was already such a pleasure to be around.
Coburn, who with Perry Martin formed Dumb Ass Partners to race their one-horse stable, had vowed that California Chrome “would go down in history.”
It just wasn’t the kind they wanted to make.
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