by 12 lengths, but California Chrome led throughout and won by lengths. Art Sherman commented, "You're looking at maybe the best horse in the world right now." On November 5, California Chrome entered the Breeders' Cup Classic as a strong favorite over Travers Stakes winner Arrogate. Chrome led from the outset, tracked by Arrogate. The two horses engaged in the homestretch and in the final yards, Arrogate surged ahead to defeat California Chrome by a neck at the finish. The two horses dominated the remainder of the field by over 10 lengths. Critics of the race and Espinoza himself speculated that the loss was because Espinoza had failed to make his move and establish a large enough lead earlier in the race. Sherman also wondered if Espinoza could have opened up a bigger lead, but he was unsure if it would have mattered: "That winner is the real McCoy, I knew he was the one we had to beat, but I didn't know how good he was," he said. While the horse came out of the race in good shape, the press asked Raul Rodriquez if the horse "knew" that he had lost the race, and the groom replied, "oh yeah." Post race analysis gave California Chrome a Beyer Speed Figure of 119, the highest of his career, topped by 120 for Arrogate. His final race of 2016 was the Winter Challenge Stakes at Los Alamitos, the only time the horse had ever run at the track that had been his home training base. In a race of a mile and a sixteenth against light competition, where he was as much as 6 horses wide, he won easily by 12 lengths and set a track record. 2017 and retirement The final race of California Chrome's career was the Pegasus World Cup in Florida on January 28, 2017. He drew the far outside post and ran a surprisingly poor race, was eased in the stretch, and finished ninth, well behind the winner, Arrogate. Arrogate's jockey, Mike Smith, commented, "Chrome just didn't fire his race today at all." Sherman commented "This was the first bad race he has run for me." The horse had fluid on his right knee after the race, and although the injury did not appear serious, Sherman theorized about the cause: "It looks like he scrambled away from there and couldn't get his footing." Arrogate's trainer, Bob Baffert,