Tonalist won the 146th running of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday at Belmont Park, denying California Chrome his shot at becoming the 12th Triple Crown winner and the first since Affirmed in 1978.
California Chrome, who won his previous six starts by a combined 27½ lengths, including the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, finished in fifth place under Victor Espinoza.
On May 3, he won the Derby by one and three-quarters lengths over Commanding Curve. In the Preakness two weeks later, he beat Ride on Curlin by one and a half lengths.
Espinoza missed out on a Triple Crown for the second time. In 2002, he pulled into the Belmont aboard the Derby and Preakness winner War Emblem, but the colt stumbled at the start and finished eighth.
California Chrome, a shiny chestnut colt with modest beginnings and a signature white blaze and four white stocking feet, captured the hearts and minds of casual fans and rugged horsemen with a running style and a lively personality that is a throwback to a bygone era.
As he embarked on his storybook run - winning six consecutive races - he has amassed quite a following, made up of people who affectionately call themselves Chromies.
But on Saturday, he failed to emulate the sport's most cherished icons.
The Triple Crown has been won 11 times previously, first in 1919 by Sir Barton, although that was a retrospective title, the term not having been coined until the 1920s. The names of the other winners have been etched into racing history: Gallant Fox, 1930; Omaha, 1935; War Admiral, 1937; Whirlaway, 1941; Count Fleet, 1943; Assault, 1946; Citation, 1948. Then, after a 25-year hiatus, Secretariat in 1973, Seattle Slew in 1977 and Affirmed in 1978.
But the last 36 years have brought one failure after another. Before Saturday, 12 horses had won the Derby and the Preakness in that time. All fell short of the Crown, losing by a whisker (Real Quiet, 1998) or a distance (Sunday Silence, 1989), or felled by an injury (Big Brown, 2008) or a stumble at the start (War Emblem, 2002).
There are those who say that racing is in desperate need of a Triple Crown winner to give the sport a superstar that would attract new fans and take the spotlight off its issues with performance-enhancing drugs. But California Chrome, despite the fans he and his team have made, will not be that horse.
While Chrome has been hailed as the people's horse, even in defeat, it is probably safe to say that there are no greater fans than the ones inside his barn.
Before this year's Kentucky Derby, the biggest horse Art Sherman had been associated with was Swaps, the 1955 Derby winner, for whom he was an exercise rider. He never stopped believing, however, that his own big horse would come along. Enter California Chrome, whom he calls 'my own Swaps.'
Sherman spent 21 years as a jockey and still carries a personalized gold money clip from when he was a rookie rider at Agua Caliente racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico. He recently downsized his operation from about 50 runners to around 17.
Before pairing with California Chrome, Espinoza's career was on a downswing. He had won more than 3,000 races, but mounts were harder to come by, and at 42 he was a long way from his prime.
California Chrome was the first foal for Steve and Carolyn Coburn and their partners Perry and Denise Martin. He was bred from an $8,000 mare and a middling sire whose services at the time cost only $2,000.
S But despite that compelling story, a Triple Crown sweep was not meant to be this year. Now racing will have to wait at least another year for a new Crown hopeful to come along and show fans that, despite modest beginnings, anything is possible.
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