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Shared Belief wills his way to Malibu victory

Shared Belief would not be denied (Benoit Photo) Last year's champion two-year-old male Shared Belief had one final chance to further his case for a 2014 Eclipse Award in Friday's Grade 1, $301,000 Malibu Stakes, and the gutsy gelding was a portrait in determination on opening day at Santa Anita. His perfect record blotted after being wiped out at the start of the November 1 Breeders' Cup Classic, Shared Belief was dispatched as the 1-2 favorite to gain compensation here. He broke like a shot without interference this time, but had to summon his deep reserves of class to forge ahead in the stretch. As though feeling the abrupt drop in trip from the 1 1/4-mile Classic to this seven-furlong dash, Shared Belief nevertheless kept finding more to overhaul 72-1 longshot Conquest Two Step in time. Shared Belief's most famous co-owner, sports talk show personality Jim Rome, was delighted. "It was an awesome, awesome day," Rome recapped, "and sometimes people are disappointed because he didn't win by open lengths and think, 'What's the matter? Maybe he's not all that (good).' The horse just won a Grade 1 cutting way back (in distance) and did it with a lot of grit and a lot of moxie and I could not be more proud of Shared Belief. I love this horse."

The son of Candy Ride was completing a Grade 1 double for Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. Two races earlier in the companion La Brea for three-year-old fillies, Hollendorfer sent out the 12-1 Sam's Sister to surprise the 3-5 Taris.

Rome gives Shared Belief a kiss (Benoit Photo) The most dangerous challenge to Shared Belief figured to come, both qualitatively and quantitatively, from the Bob Baffert barn. That Hall of Famer had no fewer than four entered, but after scratching Pimpernel, relied on 2-1 second choice Chitu and 9-1 third choice Indianapolis along with the lesser-fancied Midnight Hawk. Chitu was expected to be the controlling speed in Pimpernel's absence, but Indianapolis hounded his stablemate through fractions of :23 and :45 1/5. Under Hall of Famer Mike Smith, Shared Belief stalked within striking range of the pace, but wasn't traveling with great alacrity as the field rounded the turn. The champion began to kick into gear turning into the stretch, but continued to make hard work of it as he gradually edged closer at the six-furlong mark in 1:08 2/5. Also on the move was the unheralded Conquest Two Step, who knifed between rivals and briefly threatened to stun the world. But Shared Belief, displaying the same grit as in his wide-trip victory in the September 27 Awesome Again, simply would not quit. Coming relentlessly in the final yards, he forced his neck in front in a final time of 1:20 3/5 on the fast track.

"I don't know if people really understand how difficult it is to go from a mile and a quarter back to seven eighths," Smith noted. "It's really hard to do. It takes a special kind of horse; he's that, and maybe more.

"This race proved what a great horse he is, just by doing what he did. To run route races, then to come back to seven eighths against top sprinters…To me, that puts a big feather in his cap and puts him in front for Horse of the Year. I think this put him ahead of the rest."

"He was sitting in a good spot," Hollendorfer said, "and he was in between horses, but really, I was watching and never had any doubts that he would get out and come running down the lane."

Conquest Two Step had a half-length to spare over Chitu, with Indianapolis a further 1 1/2 lengths adrift. Next came Frensham; Hollendorfer's other runner, Tamarando; Rprettyboyfloyd; Diamond Bachelor; and Midnight Hawk.

Campaigned by Rome's Jungle Racing, KMN Racing, Hollendorfer, Litt, Solis II and Todaro, Shared Belief now sports a 9-8-0-0 line with $2,032,200 in earnings. He paid $3 for his Malibu heroics.

The Eclipse electorate will now determine whether his performance was enough to overtake his principal rivals for the three-year-old male title, Kentucky Derby/Preakness star California Chrome and Breeders' Cup Classic winner Bayern.

Shared Belief mounted a late-season campaign to win a divisional championship last year, achieved through romps in the Hollywood Prevue and CashCall Futurity. Knocked off the Triple Crown trail by foot problems, the dark bay resumed with a fluent allowance score over Golden Gate Fields' Tapeta May 26.

His second-half strategy yielded convincing wins in the July 5 Los Alamitos Derby and August 24 Pacific Classic over older horses, and he overcame herding that would have stymied most in the aforementioned Awesome Again. The body slam he took from Bayern right out of the gate in the Classic, however, and his subsequent steadying off heels proved too much. Still, he performed commendably in the circumstances to finish fourth.

"I truly believe he would be undefeated right now if you take the start of the BC Classic out of it," Smith said. "I got beat three lengths and I lost at least seven or eight leaving the gate and on down the track. I was carried out wide after that as well. I certainly would have liked to have seen us undefeated right now and then there wouldn't be a question about Horse of the Year right now."

"We put all that behind us," Hollendorfer said of the Breeders' Cup fracas. "There's nothing we can do about what happened and so we forget about it and just remember that he's a good horse and we came back and won, so I feel like he really justified himself today.

"I don't vote on Horse of the Year but all the other folks can take a look and see what they think."

Bred by Pam and Martin Wygod in Kentucky, Shared Belief was purchased privately by his current connections after his debut conquest as a juvenile at Golden Gate. A half-brother to Grade 3 winner Little Miss Holly, he is out of the winning Storm Cat mare Common Hope, who is herself a half-sister to Grade 1 heroine Key Phrase and a three-quarter sister to stakes-winning sprinter and sire Yankee Gentleman.

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