Shared Belief back on work tab

Shared Belief, the ante-post favorite for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita, worked a half-mile in 50.80 seconds on Tuesday morning at Golden Gate Fields, his first drill since overcoming an eventful trip to capture the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 27.

Russell Baze, the Hall of Fame jockey, was aboard for the drill for Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. Hollendorfer said everything went as planned with the work, and he would work Shared Belief weekly between now and his return to Santa Anita the week of the Breeders’ Cup.

“I’ve had him on that kind of a schedule and it’s worked,” Hollendorfer said.

Shared Belief has trained on the synthetic Tapeta surface at Golden Gate since the spring, when foot issues forced him to the sidelines. Since returning to action early this summer, Shared Belief has made three trips to Southern California, winning races at Los Alamitos, Del Mar, and Santa Anita. After each race, he has headed back up to Golden Gate.

Shared Belief has won all seven of his starts. Should he capture the Breeders’ Cup Classic – which would mark his third Grade 1 win of the year, all against older horses – he would be the leading candidate for both Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male.

To do so, though, he will have to outrun a field that could number as many as the maximum of 14, and is scheduled to include such outstanding 3-year-olds as California Chrome, Bayern, and Tonalist.

As of Tuesday, at least 14 horses were under consideration for the BC Classic, including Big Cazanova, Candy Boy, Cigar Street, Footbridge, Imperative, Majestic Harbor, Moreno, Tapiture, Toast of New York, and Zivo.

If Shared Belief wins the Classic, in addition to the first prize from the race itself, he would win an additional $1 million bonus for sweeping the Los Alamitos Derby, Pacific Classic at Del Mar, and BC Classic. That bonus, the Bolton Challenge, was set up this year by Los Alamitos.