Citizen Bull leads Baffert trio in Shared Belief; D’Amato has half of Del Mar Derby

Sunday’s $300,000 Del Mar Derby (G2) and $125,000 Shared Belief S. have a common theme: small fields dominated by multiple entrants from high-profile barns.

Bob Baffert has the Shared Belief surrounded with champion Citizen Bull, Gaming, and up-and-comer Privman, facing only two others. In the Del Mar Derby on turf, Phil D’Amato has half of the six-horse field, led by Iron Man Cal and The Padre. 

The Shared Belief, carded as Del Mar’s second race with a post time of 5 p.m. ET, serves as a rematch between Citizen Bull and Gaming. While Citizen Bull was only third to Gaming in last summer’s Del Mar Futurity (G1), the tables were turned emphatically in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). The improving Citizen Bull, who in the meantime wired the American Pharoah (G1), again controlled the pace in the Juvenile to spring a 15-1 upset. Gaming chased in second at every call to round out the Baffert exacta.

Voted champion two-year-old male, Citizen Bull picked up where he left off with another front-running score in the Feb. 1 Robert B. Lewis (G3) at Santa Anita. But the son of leading sire Into Mischief hasn’t won since. A tiring fourth in the Santa Anita Derby (G1), and 15th in the Kentucky Derby (G1), Citizen Bull shortened up for the June 7 Woody Stephens (G1) and checked in fourth at a muddy Saratoga. 

A freshened Citizen Bull now returns to the scene of his Breeders’ Cup triumph, over a one-mile trip that should be right in his wheelhouse. Leading rider Juan Hernandez will be aboard for the first time as the colt breaks from the outside post 5.

Gaming lost his way after the Juvenile. After fading to a distant third as the 1-2 favorite in the Los Alamitos Futurity (G2), he wound up eighth in the Southwest (G3) and dropped off the Derby trail. Gaming fared better when runner-up in the Hot Springs S. back at Oaklawn Park, and he placed third with trouble in the Pat Day Mile (G2) on Derby Day at Churchill Downs. 

At last, Gaming regained the winning thread in the June 8 Affirmed S. at Santa Anita. New pilot Hector Berrios masterminded a wire-to-wire victory that day, and they team up again here.

Privman is finally beginning to live up to the high standards of his namesake, retired Daily Racing Form writer Jay Privman. The son of Triple Crown champion Justify has won two straight over this course and distance, and he’ll try to make it a hat trick. Drawn on the rail, he picks up a new rider in Kazushi Kimura.

Completing the field are Smooth Cruisein, who’s been facing elders in graded sprints, and Doug O’Neill’s twice-raced maiden Brother Brother. 

D’Amato is in an analogous situation in the Del Mar Derby, the ninth race at 8:30 p.m. ET, although the class disparity is much narrower between his trio and the others. 

Iron Man Cal, named in honor of baseball legend Cal Ripken, boasts the best form despite a three-race losing streak. The near-misser to Aidan O’Brien’s Henri Matisse in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) over this course, he resurfaced in the American Turf (G1) on Derby Day and ran a creditable sixth at a rain-affected Churchill. 

Bet down to 1-2 favoritism to rebound at Del Mar in the Oceanside S., Iron Man Cal stumbled so badly out of the gate as to lose all chance. In the circumstances, he did exceptionally well to rally for second, beaten just a half-length by Game Warrior. A clean trip can put Iron Man Cal back in the win column with regular rider Antonio Fresu.

Yet stablemate The Padre has plenty of upside as a son of Godolphin superstar Ghaiyyath. The Irish import rolled late to capture his stakes debut in the La Jolla H., defeating such local yardsticks as Freedom’s Not Free, Artislas, and Game Warrior. 

The Padre’s collateral form suggests that he stacks up with Iron Man Cal, and he keeps Umberto Rispoli aboard. D’Amato’s third entrant, Mythical Reel, has more to prove in the wake of his trailing sixth behind Freedom’s Not Free in the May 11 Cinema S. and his recent second in an allowance.

The comeback winner of that Aug. 10 allowance, Geometry, could be the biggest danger to D’Amato’s cornering the Del Mar Derby. Trained by Jonathan Thomas, the son of 2010 Del Mar Derby star Twirling Candy, broke his maiden at Keeneland last October before going to the sidelines. 

Geometry hails from a very productive family cultivated by owner/breeder George Strawbridge Jr. The homebred promises to put his name in black-type like his Grade 2-winning half-brother, Starting Over, and millionaire uncle Smart Bid, among others.