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California Chrome Expected To Make Comeback At Local Racetrack

By Mike DeNardo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Huge crowds are expected next month, should Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome race in the Pennsylvania Derby at Parx in Bensalem.

"There's no question that this will be the most significant day we've ever had, in the history of the track," Parx spokesman and track announcer Keith Jones says.

Jones says the phones have been ringing off the hook, ever since word that California Chrome, the three-year-old colt that almost won the Triple Crown this year, plans to run in the $1-million Pennsylvania Derby September 20th.

Jones says there will be live music and big screen TVs in the picnic grove to entertain as many as 25,000 race fans expected to turn out:

"Obviously you want them to be able to get food and drink, a place to use the bathroom, betting lines, all things like that. That will all be ramped up in a major way."

A Derby winner has never raced at Parx. Smarty Jones was scheduled to run the Pennsylvania Derby in '04, but injuries caused him to retire.

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