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Breeders’ Cup 2016: Post times, live TV schedule for Saturday’s races

2014 star California Chrome will go for history at the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Nov 5, 2016, 12:01 PM UTC

California Chrome trains before the Breeders’ Cup Classic

Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

Nyquist? Retired. Exaggerator? Retired. Creator? Retired. The winners of the three 2016 Triple Crown races won’t be in the Breeders’ Cup Classic field on Saturday night at Santa Anita Park in California, but that doesn’t mean one of the premier races of the international horse racing season will have no star power.

The 2014 winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, California Chrome, will enter the $6 million, 1-1/4-mile Classic (8:35 p.m. ET, NBC) with a lot on the line. The 5-year-old colt would become the first horse to win both the Dubai World Cup and Classic in the same season with a victory, Bloodhorse notes. Chrome won that race in 2:01.83 after finishing second in it a year earlier, his last defeat before six consecutive victories this year.

Before American Pharoah completed the first Triple Crown title since 1978 last year, Chrome had an opportunity to do it a year earlier. Coming off wins at the Derby and Preakness, he got a poor start at the Belmont Stakes and just never recovered after having his front right heel stepped on. He finished fourth. At the Classic that year, he again failed to post a victory, but finished third and was named the 2014 American Horse of the Year.

That’s the point where the athletic career ends for most non-gelded colts. Worth far more in the stud barn and with little else to prove on the track, most would have been retired. Like American Pharoah last year, or the three winners of the Triple Crown races this year. Not Chrome, though. He raced twice in 2015, finishing second in both. Trained by Art Sherman, now it’s Chrome’s time to get the Classic victory he missed out on two years before, and he’s even-money favorite to do it.

“He is bigger, stronger, in peak form,” trainer Bob Baffert, who has two horses entered against him, told the New York Times. “American Pharoah was like that coming into this race last year.”

Chrome’s chief competition, Baffert’s Arrogate (5-2) and Kiaran P. McLaughlin’s Frosted (5-1), will be looking to upset the party. Arrogate has won four of the five races he entered this year, including the Grade 1 Travers Stakes in August. The 3-year-old won the 1-1/4-mile race in 1:59.36. The 4-year-old Frosted, meanwhile, has won three of five races this year, though he failed to finish in the top three in at the Dubai World Cup won by Chrome.

The Classic is the final race of nine to be run Saturday, but there’s plenty of reason to tune in earlier. The 1-1/16-mile Sentient Jet Juvenile will be run at 5:43 p.m. and can be viewed on NBCSN. The $2 million Juvenile is always a nice introduction to some of the leading competitors for next year’s Triple Crown races. For example, Nyquist won last year at Keeneland. Not This Time (7-2), Classic Empire (4-1), and Gormley (5-1) are the three betting favorites.