Art Sherman, David of racing, who annihilated the Goliaths in the game with an unlikely slingshot California Chrome , will be honored by Santa Anita . Park December 26 marks his retirement at the age of 84 after a six-decade racing and coaching career.
Sherman left the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at the age of seven, then fled his contemporaries in the gin rummy room at the old Jamaica Racecourse in the late 1950s as a backup racer on the New York circuit, and later That still became a successful coach, winning 2,261 races.
In either case, it was a wild ride.
“There are some things Faye (his wife is turning 60) and I want to do, and right now I’m closing my barn (at the moment). Los Alamitos . Racecourse) Where I have a lot of work and the kids are going for the holidays,” Sherman said when asked about his immediate plans now that the reality of retirement has taken hold.
“I just sold my spot in Cypress (near Los Alamitos, Sherman’s training headquarters and hometown of California Chrome in his glory years), so I’m moving out of there. Right now, I there’s a lot on the agenda.”
One thing that was fortunately not, fortunately, was his health.
Sherman, who turned 85 on February 17, had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his bladder in March 2019 but is now cancer-free.
“That problem is on my back,” he said, “so that’s great.
“I don’t know what more I can say about California Chrome. Everything is written about him. Recently I was on two radio shows, one was in Kentucky, TVG performed a very nice piece about me to be featured. aired not long ago and (Los Alamitos owner Ed) Doc Allred threw a catered party for me with about 100 people in attendance.”
Sherman rode his last horse on December 10 at Los Alamitos, shot 9-1 Chasing Alchemy ranked seventh at the hands of jockey Wayne Barnett, but win or lose, Sherman remained in form, a trait that has helped him succeed on the long, difficult road and established him as one of the greats. The game’s most venerable porcelain.
Brian Beach, former agent for Victor Espinoza, who drove the California Chrome to win the 2014 Kentucky Derby presented by Yum, said: “Art is a great guy in the Shoemaker model.” Brands (G1) and came 2016 when he won his second Horse of the Year title.
“He didn’t go too high on the highs and too low on the lows, and we had a couple of big losses, losing Belmont (G1) in pursuit of the Triple Crown and losing the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).
“The art is always the same. He never blames Victor, is easy to deal with and is a straight shot. He’s just a lovely man.”
Sherman recalls: “I met so many nice people around the world, met all the foreign owners and trainers in Dubai, besides the Queen at Royal Ascot. These are the things you will always remember. .
“‘Chrome’ is based in Japan (at Arrow Stud) and I was invited to meet him, even though it’s a bad time to travel.
“Perhaps we can go next year if things are a little more relaxed, but right now it’s really complicated to travel abroad.”
California Chrome will turn 11 in 2022. He wins 16 of the 27 starters with $14,752,650 and is viscerally the most popular horse of his generation. Hard to fathom now, but “The People’s Horse” is largely credited for drawing 72,811 fans who came to watch him run during the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Classic in Santa Anita.
“It’s all coming to an end,” Sherman mused. “We’ve seen all the best of this game, all the great horses that ran in Santa Anita when I was a kid, but racing is different now.”
Sherman developed California Chrome into a masterpiece of form and function, which achieved worldwide success and acclaim, contributing greatly to the positive exposure the game desperately needed and it paid off. worthy of him.
And to race.
