Shared Belief leads the way in battle for Breeders' Cup immortality

ARCADIA, Calif. – After Shared Belief won his first start at Golden Gate Fields on Aug. 19, 2013, he was transferred to the Hollywood Park barn of trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who was informed the horse was for sale. Hollendorfer asked Marty Wygod, who bred and owned Shared Belief, if he could have the first crack at buying the horse.

Hollendorfer called Alex Solis Jr., who is the son of jockey Alex Solis and has fashioned a successful career as a bloodstock agent and adviser. Solis phoned Jim Rome, the well-known sportscaster, who wanted in. Rome took 40 percent. Hollendorfer took 20 percent. So did George Todaro, who has had horses with Hollendorfer for years. Solis and his business partner, Jason Litt, took 10 percent, and Kevin Nish took the remaining 10 percent.

Solis called Wygod, agreed on a price, and within 48 hours of that debut, Shared Belief was sold.

It was a risky venture. The cost was $300,000, and since Shared Belief is a gelding, there’s no stallion deal to prop up his residual value. He had to earn it on the racetrack.

He has exceeded all expectations. Shared Belief won his next two starts at age 2, including the Cash Call Futurity, and was named champion 2-year-old male.

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After an injury to his right front hoof sidelined him earlier this year, Shared Belief has come back with four more wins to remain unbeaten. He has earned $1,552,200.

Shared Belief will be favored to add to that bankroll and to run his win streak to eight Saturday at Santa Anita in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the last and richest of the 13 Breeders’ Cup races held here Friday and Saturday.

The Classic’s purse is $5 million, with the winner’s share just shy of $3 million. But Shared Belief also is in line for a $1 million bonus. Los Alamitos created the Bolton Challenge this year for any horse who could win the Los Alamitos Derby, the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, and the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Shared Belief is two-thirds of the way there.

If he prevails, Shared Belief will be the first horse to win the Classic while remaining unbeaten since Zenyatta won here at Santa Anita in 2009.

Year-end championships also are on the line in the Classic. Shared Belief is one of four horses who could secure the Eclipse Award for champion 3-year-old male and most likely Horse of the Year with a win. The others are California Chrome, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner; Tonalist, who won the Belmont; and even Bayern, who beat California Chrome in the Pennsylvania Derby but has yet to face Shared Belief or Tonalist.

“Horse of the Year is on the line in this race,” said Art Sherman, the trainer of California Chrome.

Hollendorfer and Sherman have known each other for years, since the days both were racing exclusively in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“We’ll continue that friendship, but when we go over for the race, we’ll be fighting it out,” Hollendorfer said.

The Classic is the final race on a 12-race card that begins at 10:15 a.m. Pacific time. It will be shown live during a one-hour telecast on NBC beginning at 5 p.m.

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The day begins with three stakes races, which are followed by nine Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup events, starting with the Juvenile Fillies at 12:05 p.m. NBCSN will show all the races except the Classic – seven live with the Juvenile Fillies on tape – in a telecast that runs from 12:30 p.m. until 5.

Eclipse Awards should be decided in nearly every Breeders’ Cup race Saturday. In the Juvenile Fillies, Angela Renee is the 3-1 favorite of Jon White, who makes the morning line at Santa Anita, and the 5-2 favorite on the line produced by Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form ’s national handicapper.

The Juvenile Fillies is the first leg of an early pick four that will have a guaranteed pool of $1.5 million.

Dank, one of two Breeders’ Cup winners from 2013 racing Saturday, defends her title in the Filly and Mare Turf. She is 5-2 on White’s line and 2-1 with Watchmaker.

The Filly and Mare Turf is the final leg of a pick five on the day’s first five races that will have a 50-cent minimum and a reduced 14 percent takeout.

The Filly and Mare Sprint has every leading candidate for that division’s title, led by Judy the Beauty, the 5-2 favorite of both White and Watchmaker.

Next comes the Turf Sprint, which is run on Santa Anita’s downhill turf course and has been dominated by local runners when held here. No Nay Never, making his first start on the course, is the lukewarm 9-2 choice of White in a wide-open field of 14. Watchmaker has Reneesgotzip, making her third consecutive appearance in this race, favored at 7-2.

The Juvenile lost some appeal when the acknowledged favorite American Pharoah had to be withdrawn earlier in the week. On their adjusted lines, both White and Watchmaker now have Eastern invader Daredevil favored at 5-2.

Flintshire, the runner-up in Europe’s premier race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, is favored by both White (3-1) and Watchmaker (5-2) in the Turf.

The Sprint is one of the best gambling races of the weekend, featuring a full field, including last year’s winner, Secret Circle, who is the lukewarm 9-2 choice on White’s line. Watchmaker has Secret Circle as the 3-1 favorite.

The Mile also has a full field, topped by the high-class European Toronado, who is 5-2 with both White and Watchmaker.

Shared Belief is the 9-5 choice on White’s line and 2-1 with Watchmaker in the Classic.

The Classic is the second leg of a daily double that begins Friday with the Distaff.

It also is the final leg of a pick six that will have a guaranteed pool of $2.5 million and the final leg of a late pick four that has a guaranteed pool of $3 million.

After warm temperatures reaching the mid-80s here midweek, fall weather is forecast by The Weather Channel for the weekend, with Saturday’s high a comfortable 67 degrees.