Shared Belief will face elders in Pacific Classic

CYPRESS, Calif. – Shared Belief will make his stakes debut against older horses Aug. 24 in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Sunday, a day after the gelding’s win in the $500,500 Los Alamitos Derby.

Hollendorfer said he prefers the Pacific Classic over 1 1/4 miles on the Polytrack synthetic surface to a start in major stakes for 3-year-olds on the East Coast later this summer.

“Our interest is the Pacific Classic,” he said. “I’m not real interested in putting him on a plane.”

The champion 2-year-old male of 2013, Shared Belief won his stakes debut in the Los Alamitos Derby, his first career start over 1 1/8 miles and first race on a dirt track. Ridden for the first time by Mike Smith, Shared Belief stalked pacesetter Can the Man to the turn, took the lead nearing the stretch and won by 4 1/4 lengths over Candy Boy.

“It’s good he’s back and showed up today,” co-owner Jim Rome said in the winner’s circle. “You look at all this real estate and wonder, ‘Can he handle the dirt and go the distance?’ He did what Shared Belief does.”

Shared Belief earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 105, close to his career best of 106 from the CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park last December.
“He came out of the race really well,” Hollendorfer said.

Unbeaten in five starts, Shared Belief missed two months of training earlier this year because of foot problems, ailments that kept him out of the major stakes in first months of the year and eventually the Triple Crown. He made his 3-year-old debut in an allowance race against older horses over six furlongs May 26 at Golden Gate Fields.

Any concern about how Shared Belief would handle his first start on dirt and first start over 1 1/8 miles was quickly squelched in the Los Alamitos Derby.

“We did have confidence he could do it, but you don’t know until you try it,” Hollendorfer said.

The Pacific Classic is the top race of the Del Mar meeting and is expected to include runners such as Majestic Harbor, who won the Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 28, and Game On Dude, the 2013 winner of the Pacific Classic who was fourth in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita.

Shared Belief will attempt to become the first 3-year-old to win the race since Dullahan in 2012 and the fifth since the race began in 1991. Shared Belief’s sire, Candy Ride, won the race in 2003.

“It will be a chore to go a mile and a quarter off a layoff,” Hollendorfer said. “I think the pedigree is there to do it.”