Will California Chrome Be a Triple Crown Champion?

California Chrome won the Preakness Stakes yesterday, and has now won two of the three races that constitute America's Triple Crown.  The gleaming chestnut colt avoided trouble in the Kentucky Derby, and won by more than four lengths.  Yesterday, he faced nine other horses, and six of them hadn't raced two weeks ago.  Ride On Curlin and General a Rod had raced in the Derby, and the filly Ria Antonia had raced the day before the Derby in the Kentucky Oaks.  Race track buffs were not impressed with California Chrome's speed figures in the Derby, and felt that the fresher horses, many of them with early speed, had a good chance to defeat the Derby winner.
  California Chrome won the Preakness by one-and-a-half lengths, with Ride On Curlin in second place, six-and-a-half lengths in front of Social Invasion, who was only a head in front of General a Rod.  Ride On Curlin seemed to be making up ground, but even if the race had been the same length as the Derby, I don't think he'd have been able to pass California Chrome.  Considering the fact that the Preakness is only two weeks after the Derby, I think that the Derby contenders did very well.    California Chrome paid $3 to win; Ride On Curlin paid $5.60 to place; and Social Invasion paid $3.40 to show.  The $2 exacta pay out was $18.20; and the $2 trifecta pay out was $76.  The rest of the field finished in this order: (5th) Ring Weekend, Pablo Del Monte, Dynamic Impact, Kid Cruz, Bayern, and Ria Antonia. Reports this morning say that all of the horses are fine and have no physical problems.
  In three weeks time, the third race of the Triple Crown will be run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.  This race is one-and-a-half miles, which will probably be the longest race any of these horses will ever run in their lives.  The Triple Crown is difficult to win - precisely because of the 5 week spread and the distances the horses have to run.  The horses who win the Triple Crown have to be adaptable to different dirt courses in three states; they run 1 and 1/4 miles the first weekend of May, 1 and 3/16 miles the third weekend of May, and 1 and 1/2 miles on the three weeks later, in June.  The differences in humidity, the consistency of the track surface, the length of the races, and the travelling between states, are all very telling on each horse.
At the moment, it looks as if ten horses will run in the Belmont Stakes - and there is, again, the possibility of a Triple Crown Champion, the first since Affirmed in 1978.