One of the most thrilling renewals of the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) in recent years was the 2016 renewal which saw eventual two-time World Champion Arrogate run down two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome . Sadly, neither of these two superstars are still with us, Arrogate having died in June of 2020, and California Chrome having left for Arrow Stud in Japan in January of the same year. Oddly enough, on the opening day of this winter meet at Santa Anita Park—the site of their epic Breeders' Cup battle—the the pair were both represented by major stakes winners, with Arrogate's daughter Fun to Dream capturing the La Brea Stakes (G1) and California Chrome's son One More Bid taking the Santa Anita Mathis Mile Stakes (G2T).
Fun to Dream was already an established stakes performer, having won four of her previous five starts, including the Fleet Treat Stakes and Betty Grable Stakes—both for California-breds. One More Bid, however has a very different career arc: the Mathis Mile was his ninth start, and it wasn't until his previous outing, a Nov. 19 maiden special weight at Del Mar which he took by a neck, that he became a winner. The key to One More Bid's improvement would appear to be getting surface and distance right at the same time, as it wasn't until his seventh start that he tried a mile on the turf, where he finished a head second in a maiden, having previously run five times from six to eight furlongs on the dirt, and once over six furlongs on the turf.
One More Bid's apparently very specific requirements, are very different his sire, who won from 4 1/2 to 10 furlongs, and on dirt, turf, and all-weather surfaces. A winner three times at 2, including two Cal-bred stakes, California Chrome shot to wider prominence in the spring of his 3-year-old career with successive victories in the San Felipe Stakes (G2), Santa Anita Derby (G1), Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1), and Preakness Stakes (G1). Only fourth in the Belmont Stakes (G1) after another horse trod on him at the start, and sixth in the Pennsylvania Derby (G1), California Chrome rebounded to take third, just a nose and a neck behind Bayern in a rough renewal of the Breeders' Cup Classic. He ended the year with a comfortable victory in the Hollywood Derby (G1T) in his sole start on the lawn and was voted both champion 3-year-old colt and Horse of the Year.
The goals set for California Chrome at 4 proved more ambitious than achievable. Given little rest after his busy 3-year-old season, he opened the new campaign with a second to the ill-fated Shared Belief in the San Antonio Invitational Stakes (G2). Sent to abroad for the Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airlines (G1), California Chrome took the runner-up spot 2 3/4 lengths behind Prince Bishop, appearing somewhat below his best. The plan was then for the colt to race at Royal Ascot, but he was scratched the day before his intended race. The cause was given as a bruised foot, but on his return to the U.S. he was found to have bruising to his cannon bones.
With both horse and reputation in need of some rehab, California Chrome was given an extended break, and he wasn't seen in action again until the following January, when he scored a comfortable victory in the San Pasqual Stakes (G2). Sent to Dubai again, California Chrome was untroubled in taking a prep for the World Cup, and then annexed the Cup itself in brilliant style while setting a new track record. Back in California, he reeled off tallies in the San Diego Handicap (G2), $1 Million TVG Pacific Classic Stakes (G1) and Awesome Again Stakes (G1) before his loss to Arrogate. He rebounded from the Breeders' Cup defeat to stroll by 12 lengths in the Winter Challenge Stakes at Los Alamitos, but was eased in his final start, the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1), which was won by Arrogate.
Voted champion older horse and, for the second time, Horse of the Year, California Chrome retired to stand the 2017 breeding season at Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky. at a fee of $40,000. Despite his popularity as a runner, California Chrome's pedigree—he is one of only two graded winners for his sire, Lucky Pulpit, out a mare whose sole victory came in an $8,000 maiden claiming race—meant that he always faced an upwards struggle to become a commercial sire, and his sale to Japan was agreed before his first crop had even turned 2.
As it turned out, California Chrome was represented by just one stakes winner from his first crop, the filly Cilla, who has won five black-type races, including the Prioress Stakes (G2). His second crop has proved better, and in addition to One More Bid, it includes California Angel, who took the JPMorgan Chase Jessamine Stakes (G2T), and California Frolic, successful in a pair of stakes on the turf and all-weather at Gulfstream Park this year. California Chrome also has two shuttle crops of racing age in Chile, which have so far yielded five stakes winners, including Chromium, winner of the Clasico Dos Mil Guineas (G1) and grade 2 scorer California King.
Coincidentally, One More Bid's pedigree is also Chilean-influenced. His dam, the Scat Daddy mare Never Grow Old, a minor winner, was foaled and raced in North America, but the second dam, Noches de Rosa, was foaled in Chile, where she won the Las Oaks (G1) and Clasico Carlos Valdes (G3) before coming to the U.S., where her successes included the Gamely Breeders' Cup Handicap (G1T) and Santa Ana Handicap (G2T). By the Sadler's Wells horse Stagecraft, Noches De Rosa also appears as third dam of Lookin At Lucky's El Derby (G1) victor Nenufar Azul. Noches de Rosa is a half sister to another Chilean graded winner and to the dams of several others, and her dam is a half sister to the Gran Premio de Honor (G1) captor Barzio.
The family arrived in Chile from the U.S. in the 1970s with the importation of the stakes-placed Pago Pago mare Rose Island. She was a half sister to the Jacinto siblings: Buzkashi, successful in the American Handicap, and Guichet, who took the Prix de Sandringham (G3). She also appears as ancestress of the three-time grade 1 winner I'm a Chatterbox, and of the late Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) winner and sire Laoban.
One More Bid and Chilean black-type scorer and grade 1 performer Wappo represent the two stakes winners from nine starters bred on the cross of California Chrome with a Scat Daddy mare, which gives the sisters Preach (dam of Pulpit) and Yarn (granddam of Johannesburg, sire of Scat Daddy). The siblings appear together in at least 26 other stakes winners, the most notable of which is Justify , who is by Scat Daddy with a second dam by Pulpit.
