Shared Belief to head outside California for next start

ARCADIA, Calif. – Shared Belief is getting ready to take his act on the road. Trainer and co-owner Jerry Hollendorfer said the $1.5 million Metropolitan Mile on Belmont Stakes Day, June 6, at Belmont Park was “right on the radar” as the next major objective for Shared Belief, who won his 10th race in 11 starts Saturday in the Santa Anita Handicap.

“The Santa Anita Handicap was a point race,” Hollendorfer said Sunday morning at Santa Anita. “We got to our point race and accomplished that. The point race now would be the Met Mile.”

Hollendorfer said the Oaklawn Handicap next month in Arkansas was being considered as a possible next start for Shared Belief. Regardless, it looks like his next start, or maybe his next two, will be outside California, where he has raced exclusively thus far.

Hollendorfer said Shared Belief would return to Golden Gate Fields on Monday to train, the schedule he has used since last year. He got a Beyer Speed Figure of 111 for his victory in the Santa Anita Handicap, the second-highest figure of his career. He got a 115 when winning the Pacific Classic at Del Mar last summer.

Shared Belief, the Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old male of 2013, now has won Grade 1 races at ages 2, 3, and 4. Hollendorfer marveled at his consistency.

“He stays the same,” Hollendorfer said. “He’s always happy. He never goes back. He just goes forward. He came out of this race real well, feeling good. He seems happy.”