I doubt if there was ever a more unlikely place for a thoroughbred racing horse to hail from than Coalinga, California.  Coalinga boasts a landscape of cattle, oil wells, and these days it’s pretty much the center of the California drought.  In other words, it’s a long way from Kentucky bluegrass.

In this place many people call nowhere, California Chrome was born to a mother who had only won one single race.  Her owners, Martin and Coburn, bought Love the Chase for the grand amount of $8,000.  Then for $2,000 more they bred her with Lucky Pulpit, a horse who hadn’t won a single race of more than five furlongs.

Adding to his problems, the Triple Crown Contender’s chances were nearly derailed at birth.

Chrome was big… weighing in at 137 pounds, and the birth had complications resulting in special treatment for both horses. Chrome was kept away from the other horses at the farm, and he was cared for by only his mother and the farm’s many attendants.

However, he soon began to bond strongly with humans, and rather than run off with the other foals, he preferred to play with his human companions. His owners believe this is what gives Chrome his special ease among crowds and noise.  He doesn’t shy away from all the attention….he craves it.  In the horse racing industry, “chrome” refers to the horse’s markings.  Say your horse has a blaze and four white stockings. That’s a LOT of “chrome”.

Another detail not working in Chrome’s favor is the fact that all four of his legs are white, and subsequently his hooves are white as well.  His feet have generally been healthy, but white hooves can be softer than the dark-colored ones, and for that reason they’re more prone to developing problems.  If Chrome does win the Triple Crown with four white feet, he’ll be the first.  Secretariat was the same color and also sported a splash of white on the nose, but he only had three white stockings.  There’s an old saying around the racetrack…

“One white foot, buy him.

Two white feet, try him.

Three white feet, be on the sly.

Four white feet, pass him by.”

Against a lifetime long on odds, time and again California Chrome has continued to defy those odds.  Treepers….let’s keep our fingers and toes crossed as this courageous “ragtag racer” dares to attempt a go at the  first Triple Crown in thirty-six years.  After all, he’s one of us.