Next Shares dips in class searching for a win
Next Shares has been a fixture in trainer Richard Baltas’ barn since the winter of 2017-18, a span that includes four stakes wins and 28 stakes appearances.
Baltas has sent Next Shares all over the nation for major races, with mixed results. Next Shares won the $250,000 Old Friends Stakes at Kentucky Downs in 2018 and the Grade 1 Shadwell Mile a month later at Keeneland.
The current goals are modest – a start in Sunday’s $80,000 Wickerr Stakes at a mile on turf at Del Mar. An 8-year-old gelding, Next Shares has drawn the outside post in a competitive field of eight. Baltas hopes Next Shares will end an 11-race losing streak, since he won the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap here in November 2019.
“He’s a little older now and maybe he’s lost a step,” Baltas said. “He’s still very sound and he is doing well. This is definitely a class break.”
Owned by a partnership that includes Baltas and his wife, Debby, Next Shares was fourth in a tough running of the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 31, finishing 3 1/2 lengths behind Smooth Like Strait, one of the top turf milers in the nation. Restrainedvengence, who was third, returned to win the Grade 3 American Stakes at Santa Anita on June 20.
“He ran fourth and I was proud of his race,” Baltas said. “It was an exceptional race.”
Baltas trains three starters in the Wickerr Stakes, including Bob and Jackie, who won the 2020 Wickerr, and the recent British import Count of Amazonia.
Bob and Jackie is winless in five starts, all graded stakes, since the 2020 Wickerr. This will be Bob and Jackie’s first start since he tailed off to finish last of six in the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes at six furlongs on turf at Santa Anita on March 13.
Count of Amazonia was a four-time winner in Britain on synthetic surfaces for trainers Richard Hannon and Marco Botti. Count of Amazonia won a one-mile handicap on the synthetic track at Chelmsford City Racecourse near London in his last start in that country in April.
“We’re learning about him and he seems to be training well,” Baltas said. “We’ll give him a shot.”
The Baltas trio must outrun Neptune’s Storm, who was formerly trained by Baltas and is now based with trainer Peter Miller. Neptune’s Storm was a game second in the American Stakes in his first start of the year, leading in the stretch before losing by a half-length to Restrainedvengence.