Golden Gate Fields: Northern California made mark on 2013 Eclipse Awards

Northern California basked in the Eclipse Awards spotlight Saturday, when Shared Belief and She’s a Tiger were honored as racing’s top 2-year-olds of 2013. Both runners got their starts in Northern California with early workouts as well as their racing debuts.

And impressive debuts they were.

She’s a Tiger made her debut June 22 at Pleasanton for trainer Jeff Bonde, winning by nine lengths in “workout fashion,” according to track notes. She broke so quickly that Dennis Patterson, the agent of her jockey, Frank Alvarado, quipped, “I was waiting for a gun to go off signaling a false start.”

Shared Belief made his debut at Golden Gate Fields on Oct. 19 and was equally spectacular, winning “handily” by seven lengths.

After the race, Shared Belief was purchased by trainer Jerry Hollendorfer from breeders Pam and Marty Wygod, who had sent the Candy Ride gelding to Jedd Josephson for his initial training.

The Wygods were so impressed with the debut that they told Hollendorfer they would send Shared Belief to him at Hollywood Park, adding that they intended to sell him. Hollendorfer, with the help of bloodstock agent Alex Solis Jr., put together a group headed by Jim Rome and purchased the colt.

Hollendorfer had purchased another promising youngster, Summer Hit, the year prior, following that horse’s debut in a claiming race, and turned him into a graded stakes winner.

Both Eclipse Award winners made only one start in Northern California, but She’s a Tiger, a $150,000 purchase as a yearling at Keeneland, has strong Northern California ties.

Among her owners are Allen Aldrich and Lisa Hernandez from Pleasanton, Stuart Downey and Phil Lebherz of San Mateo, and Mark Dedomenico, who had an Eclipse Award winner in 2010 in Blind Luck, who was trained by Hollendorfer and was named that year’s top 3-year-old filly.

Aldrich began the group’s acceptance speech at the Eclipse Awards dinner Saturday night at Gulfstream Park and even snuck the Humboldt County Fair at Ferndale into his remarks.

One reason bloodstock agent Mersad Metanovic pushed Bonde to purchase She’s a Tiger is that the filly is a three-quarter-sister to millionaire Smiling Tiger, who ran third twice in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint for Bonde.

The Eclipse eased the sting of She’s a Tiger’s disqualification in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, in which she was placed second behind Ria Antonia due to interference.

Lebherz, who will be standing Smiling Tiger at his new 70-acre Premier Thoroughbreds Farm in Oakdale in California’s Central Valley, was a late addition to the group after initially passing because Bonde had not seen the filly at the Keeneland sale.

“Once I saw that [debut], I knew she was really a special horse, and she’s proven that,” Lebherz said. “People didn’t think she’d go that far, but she set the pace and kept going in the Breeders’ Cup.”

Lebherz said Smiling Tiger would begin his stallion duties on Valentine’s Day.

Bonde said She’s a Tiger is due back from Dedomenico’s Pegasus Training & Equine Rehabilitation Center near Seattle this week.

Also on Saturday night, Barry Bearak of The New York Times won a media award for his story on jockey Russell Baze, of whom he said, “The winningest jockey is one of the nicest men in sports. Nice guys finish first.”

Then, trainer D. Wayne Lukas received a special Eclipse Award of Merit and began his acceptance speech with a story about training a Quarter Horse at Bay Meadows.