Santa Anita: Shared Belief's injured foot coming along

ARCADIA, Calif. – Shared Belief, the champion 2-year-old male of 2013, continues to recover from a grabbed quarter suffered in early January, but is not being pointed to a specific race, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Friday.

Hollendorfer said he does not have a timetable for Shared Belief’s next workout. Shared Belief has been walking at the barn.

“We’re taking our time until that is as solid and healed as it can be,” Hollendorfer said of Shared Belief’s troubled foot.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

Hollendorfer considered Shared Belief for the $200,000 Robert Lewis Stakes on Feb. 8, but has scrapped plans for that race. The next major stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita around two turns is the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on March 8. Hollendorfer stopped short on Friday of naming Shared Belief as a candidate for that race.

The San Felipe is a prep for the Santa Anita Derby on April 5, which leads to the Kentucky Derby over 1 1/4 miles at Churchill Downs on May 3. How Shared Belief is campaigned regarding the Kentucky Derby is unclear.

“I’m thinking of the horse more than the Kentucky Derby,” Hollendorfer said. “There are a lot of races for this horse, plenty of races to run in no matter what time of year it is.

“The tendency is to not run the horses as many times as in the past [before the Kentucky Derby], but they need seasoning and they need to be very fit to go a mile and a quarter. The time you lose is significant for the race.”

Shared Belief is unbeaten in three starts, the most recent of which was the $750,000 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park on Dec. 14.