Shared Belief, a leading Horse of the Year contender following his smashing 2 3/4-length victory in the Pacific Classic, completed serious preparations for Saturday’s Grade 1 Awesome Again at Santa Anita by working four furlongs in a bullet :47 3/5 at Golden Gate Fields Tuesday. It was the fastest of 14 moves at the distance.
Ricardo Gonzalez was up on the three-year-old gelding for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who saw his charge gallop out five furlongs in 1:01.
“It was a very good work,” Hollendorfer said. “The track was a little faster today, so he went a little faster. He was really reaching out today.”
Hollendorfer said Shared Belief would ship to Santa Anita Wednesday morning. Hall of Famer Mike Smith will ride Shared Belief in the $300,000 Awesome Again, a 1 1/8-mile race that serves as a prep for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on November 1.
Shared Belief, recipient of the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding two-year-old of 2013, was perfect from three starts as a juvenile and is three for three this year.
After being forced to miss the Triple Crown due to a foot problem, the son of Candy Ride returned to action with an easy win over allowance rivals at Golden Gate Fields in late May. His first four starts came on synthetic tracks but Shared Belief made a seamless transition to dirt in his next outing at Los Alamitos, the Grade 2 Swaps on July 5, winning in hand by a 4 1/4-length margin. He proceeded to make short work of older foes in the August 24 Pacific Classic at Del Mar, unleashing a scintillating turn on the far turn that carried him to another convincing victory.
Shared Belief is owned in partnership by Jungle Racing (Jim and Janet Rome), Hollendorfer, KMN Racing (Kevin and Kim Nish), Jason Litt, George Todaro, and Alex Solis II. He has earned $1,372,200 in his six races.
Click here to view Shared Belief’s Brisnet.com Lifetime Past Performances (report #5044).