to use tactical speed at nearly any point in a race. Early in his career, he tended to be slow out of the starting gate; if he had to wait too long for the start, he sometimes expressed anxiety by rocking from side to side, preventing him from being oriented straight forward when the gate opened. He overcame this problem by the end of the 2014 season and learned to break quickly. When outside and in the clear, he usually won. He originally did not run well on the inside or in close quarters; two of his worst finishes were in races where he had the number one post position, and his fourth-place performance in the Belmont Stakes was attributed to both his injury at the start and the number two draw. However, as an older horse, he won both a 2016 prep race at Meydan Racecourse and the Pacific Classic from the number one post. Racing history 2013: Two-year-old season California Chrome's first start was in a maiden race at Hollywood Park in April 2013, where he placed second by a length. Three weeks later, he won a maiden race by lengths. In both races, he was ridden by Alberto Delgado. About a month later, California Chrome was entered in the Willard L. Proctor Memorial Stakes. He was one of four horses assigned to carry , the highest impost given by the handicapper. Alberto Delgado was out with a broken ankle, so Corey Nakatani was his rider. The colt was second for the first three furlongs but finished fifth in a field of nine. His next two races were at Del Mar racetrack. Delgado returned as his jockey, and California Chrome scored his second career win in the Graduation Stakes, a race limited to California-bred horses, prevailing by lengths. He carried the same weight over the same distance as his previous race, but this time he wore blinkers and ran on Lasix for the first time in his career. Next was his first graded stakes race, the seven-furlong, Grade I Del Mar Futurity. He ran strongly but finished sixth after he got caught in traffic in a field of 11 horses and was accidentally hit in the face by another jockey's whip. Two months later, California Chrome ran in the Golden State Juvenile Stakes on November 1 at Santa Anita Park, and at , was the longest race he