No Stop at the Preakness for Two California Chrome Owners

BALTIMORE - When California Chrome's improbable journey reached Pimlico Race Course for Saturday's Preakness Stakes, two notable people from his entourage were missing.

Perry and Denise Martin, who, with Steve and Carolyn Coburn, own the colt who won the Kentucky Derby on May 3, skipped the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown series.

The Martins had booked their trip to Baltimore but canceled at the last minute to stay home in Yuba City, Calif. They own a laboratory in Sacramento that tests safety equipment like air bags and landing gear, and, the Coburns said, the Martins have fallen behind in their work because of California Chrome's success.

'When he won the San Felipe, we were getting a lot of press,' Carolyn Coburn said. 'And then he won the Santa Anita Derby, and we were getting more press. So it was like a month before the Derby, and we had people coming and calling, and he has a business.'

The Martins do not enjoy the spotlight as much as the outgoing Coburns do. Steve Coburn called himself and Perry Martin the odd couple because 'Perry is very quiet, and I'll talk to anybody.'

Carolyn Coburn also said their co-owners did not have a pleasant experience with the organizers at Churchill Downs. The Martins picked up Perry's 83-year-old mother, Katherine, from a nursing facility in Michigan and drove her to Louisville for the Derby.

'Churchill did not go out of their way to get her to where she needed to be and to assist us,' Carolyn Coburn said of Katherine Martin, who was in a wheelchair. 'Steve and Perry did everything, got her in her seat, then we had to get her to the rail so she could watch the race, then get her to the winner's circle.'

Before the Derby, Ron Turcotte, who rode Secretariat to the Triple Crown in 1973 and was paralyzed in a riding accident in 1978, said he had been denied an accessible parking space at Churchill Downs for the 2013 race. He did not attend the Derby this year because, he said, 'I didn't want to go through the hassle again.'

Carolyn Coburn said the Martins would be watching the Preakness at an undisclosed site and having dinner with their two children afterward.

'He said, 'I've had enough, you guys go,' ' she said of Perry Martin. 'It's kind of sad because we are DAP Racing, and it's kind of like something's missing.'

She said there were no fissures among the owners, just a little exhaustion on the Martins' end.

'They are wonderful partners,' Carolyn Coburn said. 'We couldn't ask for better partners. We're a team, and we will continue to be that way.'

She added: 'Pimlico and Maryland has been wonderful to us. They welcomed us with open arms. And they appreciate us. And not only us, but all the other owners, all the other trainers, the jockeys, they have just embraced us, and it has been just such a different experience.'