Horse trainer Art Sherman to end career bookended by legends Swaps, California Chrome

Swaps and California Chrome.

“Nice bookends,” Art Sherman said earlier this week as he discussed his legacy career in horse racing, which end Dec. 12 when the 84-year-old trainer retires at the conclusion of the Los Alamitos season.

“I just think this is a great time to close this chapter,” Sherman said of his near seven-decade history in the sport as an exercise rider, jockey, trainer and owner.

“I want to do some other things rather than getting up daily at 3:30 a.m., although I know a lot of people my age get up at 3:30 … so there might not be much of a change there.”

Sherman then broke into his patented laugh.

“I’ve had a blast. It’s been a great run. But there comes a time when you’ve been on a run like this … I’d like to see some things in the United States that I’ve never seen. I’ve got some national parks out there that I’d like to see. I want to travel to Montana and Wyoming … cowboy country.

“It’s time for Faye (his wife of 62 years) to see some things for the first time.”

Sherman, a resident of Rancho Bernardo, said he will continue to have ownership interest in some horses.

But he has been turning over his stable to other trainers, including his sons Stephen and Alan. Stephen trains horses at Golden Gate Fields in Northern California. Alan is based in Lexington, Ky.

“I’m down to five horses,” said Art Sherman. “That’s as few as I’ve ever had. It’s been hard to see the horses leave the barn. They are family. I sent one out today.

“It’s kind of fun to see them going to people I enjoy. I hope it doesn’t bother me too much when the last leaves. But I know it will.”

Sherman had 900 winners during a 23-year career as a jockey. Then he won more than 2,300 races as a trainer.

But his career stars two great horses — Swaps and California Chrome.

Sherman was the exercise rider for Swaps, the Southern California horse that won the Kentucky Derby in 1955. He became the oldest trainer ever to win the Kentucky Derby with California Chrome in 2014 at the age of 77.

“I was blessed to be part of the career of two great horses,” said Sherman. “And I mean they were great horses.”

Sherman had been exercising horses for two years when owner Rex Ellsworth and trainer Mesh Tenney asked the 18-year-old to accompany Swaps from California to the Kentucky Derby.

“It was very tough for a California horse shipping to the Kentucky Derby back then,” said Sherman. “We took a train. I was in the car with Swaps. He was a super horse. He held five world records at one time. I loved riding and working Swaps.”

Fifty-nine years later, Sherman returned to the Kentucky Derby with California Chrome.

“California Chrome was a celebrity,” said Sherman. “When we got to Churchill Downs, there were a lot of ‘Chromies’ following the horse.”

Of course, the horse’s septuagenarian trainer was very much part of the story.

“One day, they asked me to visit the museum at Churchill Downs,” recalled Sherman. “I’m already in awe when the curator told me Swaps was buried behind the museum and took me out to the site.

“Here was his grave. I sat there and looked at that grave and was hoping Chrome could run the Kentucky Derby like Swaps. It was an amazing moment. It was very emotional for me. It brought back so many memories. That moment really got to me.”

Of course, California Chrome delivered.

“California Chrome turned my life around,” said Sherman. “So many good trainers never have an opportunity to win a graded race. And there I am later in my career with one of the greatest horses of all time. I was so fortunate. It was cool, a lot of fun.”

Sherman thinks he’ll always be the oldest trainer ever to win a Kentucky Derby.

“But I’m sure Charlie Whittingham thought the same thing when he won at 76,” said Sherman. “I got him by a year.”

Sherman said he would love to visit California Chrome in Japan, where Chrome stands at stud after a racing career that produced more than $14.7 million in earnings. At the time he retired, that was a North American record (since broken by Arrogate).

“The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, Dubai … I never thought I’d win a $10 million race. Chrome was one of a kind. ... Amazing story.”

So is Sherman’s.

“I wasn’t a great jockey,” he recalls. “But I won races in an era of great jockeys. I could win races against them with the right horse. I retired as a jockey in 1975 after winning my last race at Bay Meadows on a horse named Chase Me Around.

“After that, I tried being a (racing) judge. That was indoors and too confining for me. I started out as a trainer with one or two horses. During the 1990s, I had as many as 60 horses in Northern California with my sons working for me. It was a very nice time. We were a close family working together, which was quite a thing.”

Sherman would love to go out a winning trainer in his final race,

“I have a horse I like, Chasing Alchemy. He just missed third by a nose as a 50-1 long shot recently at Del Mar last week. He’s going to be OK … he might be the last horse I run.”

And after Dec. 12?

“I’m going to try to unwind a little bit and get my bearings,” said Sherman. “I can’t be inactive. Faye and I have had a great ride and met a lot of great people. We’ll be around.”

Turf Festival this weekend

Del Mar ends its fall meeting with its annual Turf Festival over the next four days — seven graded stakes races on the turf course beginning on Thanksgiving Day with the Grade III Red Carpet Stakes at 1 3/8 miles for older fillies and mares.

The featured attractions will be a pair of Grade I stakes — the Hollywood Derby for 3-year-olds Saturday and the Matriarch Stakes for older fillies and mares on Sunday’s closing program.

First post Thursday will be 11 a.m. before shifting back to 12:30 p.m. on the final three days.

Center is a freelance writer.