“The People’s Horse”. Apparently, California Chrome occasionally is known by that sobriquet. The notion being that, in the horse world, Chrome is a regular guy.

Chrome’s mother, in particular, was very much a commoner in the Sport of Kings, yet here is Chrome, winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness for a couple of regular guys … and the favorite in the $10 million Dubai World Cup tonight at Meydan Racecourse.

It would have been fun for Chrome to win, from my perspective of “occasional race fan”. A horse was flown halfway around the world and dropped down in a strange environment. That would seem to be a significant disadvantage.

Yet Chrome almost won.

It was an odd race, and people who know much more about the sport than I do thought it was particularly odd.

Even I know this: Chrome had a rough trip. A lot of banging and nudging.

Chrome started in Gate 9, the widest in the field for the 2,000-meter (mile-and-a-quarter) race.

So, out of the gate, and African Story, last year’s winner of the most lucrative event in racing, went to the front. Which was the first odd bit. African Story is not known for being out front. But perhaps someone had to be; none of the nine horses had a reputation for bolting out of the gate.

Chrome stayed close to African Story and Hokko Tarumae, the Japanese horse, but was stuck on the outside for a very long time. Sometimes four horses wide. Doing well, moving well, but covering extra ground all along.

When it seemed as if Chrome might get closer to the rail, Long River, with Mickael Barzalona up, made a couple of brazen attempts to force his way between Chrome and Hokko Tarumae. In the offices of The National, I remember saying, “That could be grounds for an inquiry.” I thought “this is dangerous; someone could go down”.

The space wasn’t there, but Long River, perhaps the least-distinguished horse in the race, kept barging forward, and Chrome more than once could be seen almost off-balance, due to the interloper on his flank.

They turned for home, and Chrome looked like he had the measure of the horses around him, but Prince Bishop, a not particularly impressive  stablemate of African Story, who had been running last earlier, sneaked through the crowd and was too fresh for Chrome, pulling away to win by a couple of lengths.

Becoming the oldest DWC winner, at age 8, in the event’s 20 iterations. On his fourth try in five years … after having been badly beaten in the first three attempts.

Chrome was second and won $2 million. Making the trip from California worth it. At least financially.

Then we come to judging Chrome’s performance? A bit overrated, the People’s Horse? Handled badly? Given a bad time?

The second two, perhaps.

Some criticized Chrome’s jockey, Victor Espinoza, for getting himself stranded in no-man’s land — four horses wide — for much of the race. My understanding is that Chrome ran more yards than any horse in the race and finished second by maybe seven or eight yards. Hmm.

Should Espinoza have gone to the front or pulled up and tucked in behind the leaders? Probably so. One or the other. But don’t make your horse run an extra 10 yards, or whatever it was — in addition to traveling 12 time zones from its California home.

And Chrome definitely was roughed up. Long River’s incursions caused Chrome problems and knocked him off-stride a time or two.

One of my colleagues, who was at the race, came back convinced Chrome had done everything that could have been expected and was much the best horse. “That was one of the greatest runs I have seen a horse make,” he said. “That horse was really game.”

So, back in the States it probably looks like “just another second-place finish”.

But for those of us who saw it live, “outstanding performance” was the takeaway. Leaving us to wonder about the jockey’s decisions and a barging competitor.