Shared Belief returning to Golden Gate

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Following this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer will be back in Northern California on Sunday. and two days later he will welcome his star Shared Belief back to the barn.

Shared Belief, sidelined since fracturing a hip during the running of the Charles Town Classic in April, is scheduled to return to Golden Gate Fields on Tuesday, following a lengthy stay at the Pegasus Training and Equine Rehabilitation Center in Washington, Hollendorfer said Wednesday at Keeneland.

“Shared Belief is waiting for me to come home to Golden Gate on Sunday, and then he’s coming in Tuesday and I’ll look at him for a couple of days and I’ll go back to Los Angeles,” Hollendorfer said. “But he’s doing real well. We have high hopes for him.”

Hollendorfer said Shared Belief has already started galloping at the training center and will pick up right where he left off when he arrives on Tuesday.

“We’ll probably take a lot of time with him, probably start breezing him in the middle of December if he goes 100 percent,” Hollendorfer said.

There are no races picked out for Shared Belief, but if all goes well in his training one could presume races like the San Antonio in February and Santa Anita Handicap in March - races he won this year - could be targeted.

Shared Belief, the 2-year-old champion of 2013, has won 10 of 12 career starts including five Grade 1's. His two losses came in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic when he was bumped around at the start of the race, lost position and finished fourth, and the Charles Town Classic in April when he was pulled up early in the race by jockey Mike Smith.

After a nuclear scan revealed the fracture, Shared Belief was shipped to Pegasus in April and returned to the track up there in early September.

“The boys that are working with him say very good,” Hollendorfer said when asked about reports on the gelding’s training.

With a spate of older horses slated for retirement following this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup, the big horses entering 2016 could be the same ones entering 2015 - California Chrome and Shared Belief.

“I know California Chrome is a rival, but I have to root for him to make it back, too,” Hollendorfer said. “I’ve seen California Chrome train at Los Alamitos a couple of different times; he looks real good.”