Shared Belief completes preparation for Awesome Again

Shared Belief, in his final work for the Grade 1, $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita, worked a half-mile on Tuesday morning at Golden Gate Fields in 47.60 seconds, and was set to board a van early Wednesday morning for his trip to Southern California.

Shared Belief went alone with exercise rider Ricardo Gonzalez, trainer and co-owner Jerry Hollendorfer said. Hollendorfer said Shared Belief would walk very early Wednesday morning at Golden Gate before getting on a van with several other horses that Hollendorfer is sending to Santa Anita for the weekend.

“I’m flying down there after training here on Wednesday and intend to be there when my horses arrive,” Hollendorfer said.

Shared Belief has shuttled between Northern and Southern California all year. Even though his last two races have been at Los Alamitos and Del Mar, and he is running at Santa Anita on Saturday, he trains on the Tapeta surface at Golden Gate Fields in between starts. Hollendorfer has maintained that program since Shared Belief injured a hoof at Santa Anita earlier this year, knocking him out of the Triple Crown races.

“For any business, I think the motto is, ‘Whatever works,’ and this has been working,” Hollendorfer said Tuesday by phone from Golden Gate. “It’s probably not ideal to keep him in Northern California and have to ship for his races, but it wasn’t ideal to have him training on the track in Southern California earlier this year. So far, this has worked.”

Before Hollywood Park closed, taking its Cushion Track surface with it, Hollendorfer stabled there, and that is where Shared Belief was based for both training and racing late last year, when he won the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity and, with it, the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old male. Hollendorfer kept many of his best horses at Hollywood Park.

“I’ve had a lot of luck with my horses training on synthetic and shipping elsewhere,” Hollendorfer said.

The Awesome Again is a Win and You’re In race for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita, but Shared Belief already has earned a fees-paid berth to the BC Classic through his victory last time out in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

After winning all three of his races last year, Shared Belief has won three more races this year and has positioned himself to make a run at both champion 3-year-old male and Horse of the Year honors if he can sweep the Awesome Again and BC Classic.

Santa Anita is running five Grade 1, $300,000 races on Saturday, all Win and You’re In preps for respective Breeders’ Cup races. Hollendorfer will have runners in three races. He said he plans to run at least Majestic Presence and Manahatta in the Chandelier for 2-year-old fillies, and at least Parranda and Scarlet Strike in the Rodeo Drive for female turf runners.