Shared Belief outruns California Chrome in San Antonio

Shared Belief (Candy Ride) got his chance at a partial Breeders' Cup Classic

(G1) do-over in Saturday's $590,000

San Antonio S. (G2) at Santa Anita Park.

After being slammed at the start of that championship event last November by Bayern (Offlee Wild), the gelding found himself finishing fourth behind not only

winner Bayern but eventual Horse of the Year and champion three-year-old male

California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit).

While Bayern was forced to skip the San Antonio due to a foot abscess, Shared

Belief and California Chrome both showed up to take their budding rivalry to the

next level. Trainer Bob Baffert even upped the ante a bit when entering

Hoppertunity (Any Given Saturday) in place of Bayern.

After weeks of intense scrutiny and publicity, the gates finally opened on

the nine-horse San Antonio field in front of a 21,522-strong crowd.

As expected, Alfa Bird (Birdstone) gunned straight for the lead from his far

outside post, with California Chrome quickly taking up a stalking position to

his outside. Shared Belief, who previously had proven his versatility by winning

from on the lead and midpack, settled a bit wider just off California Chrome's

flank through splits of :23 3/5 and :47 4/5.

"At first I thought California Chrome was

getting away from me and I know that when he switches leads he has another gear.

It wasn't good enough today but not only was it not good enough but I don't have

words to describe what Shared Belief did.

"Hopefully they get to meet again.

They're two great champions, they're going to battle back and forth. Hopefully

we see a race between the three of them again, Shared Belief, California Chrome

and Bayern."

"I'm just

happy to win this race and that's the honest truth," trainer Jerry Hollendorfer

said. "I don't care what happened

before. I care what happened right now and what happens in the future.

California Chrome has a big following, deservedly so. He deserved to be Horse of

the Year. If things had gone a little bit different, I might have got a chance,

but you can't always get things to go your way. I'm proud of (trainer) Art (Sherman)

and his horse (California Chrome), and I'm very proud of my horse and my partnership."

Shared Belief is campaigned by Jim and Janet Rome's Jungle Racing, KMN

Racing, Hollendorfer, Jason Litt, Alex Solis II and George Todaro. Jim Rome is a

familiar face in the gelding's winner's circle photos, but was forced to miss

the San Antonio.

"This is so

much fun," said Rome's wife, Janet. "I'm only disappointed Jim couldn't be here for the big race. He's had

faith in Shared Belief ever since Alex Solis II found this horse for us. He

always believed this was THE horse.

"Jim is in St. Louis. He made a commitment to one of his sponsors last summer

and of course he was going to honor that."

"I think the fans were into it and I know a lot of people were looking across

the nation and that's what we need, a great race to help things out,"

Hollendorfer added. "I thought Chrome's rider moved at the right time and got to

the lead at the right time. He was just saying come and get me and we came and

got him and that's the way it played out today. They are two great horses and

they'll probably meet up again, so we'll what happens. It's a long year."

"I can't even describe

that performance," an emotional Smith said. "He ranks right up there with the top five horses I have ever

been on, with room to grow. It really was so impressive. There's no telling what

this horse can do or the potential that he can reach. I think he still has room

to grow.

"I would say this is the best he's ever run but I would

also say this is the best he's ever looked. He's not very tall but he's made

really well and he had more flesh on him today than normal. He works very fast

(for that track) up at Golden Gate Fields.

"I'm just happy to be riding him. I learned something about

him today. I'm numb right now. I'd like to see what the final time was because

it felt like we flew."

"I had a good trip. For two months off, it was a good race for him, a good

effort. He will be better the next race," asserted California Chrome's rider,

Victor Espinoza. "I know I had him right behind us. I was trying to open it up

on him as much as I could turning from home. California Chrome just got a little

tired the last 20 yards.

Shared Belief's second-half strategy of 2014 yielded convincing wins in the

Los Alamitos Derby (G2) and Pacific Classic (G1) over older horses, and he

overcame herding that would have stymied most in the Awesome Again S. (G1) in

his final prep for the Breeders' Cup Classic. 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 and he suffered his first loss when fourth that day.

The dark bay gelding got back to his winning ways about two months later,

closing out 2014 with a neck victory in the Malibu S. (G1) on December 26, and

this season opener sets him up as the horse to beat this year.

"We're

thinking about that ($1 million) Santa Anita H. ([G1] going 1 1/4 miles on March

7) next for sure," Hollendorfer said. "I couldn't argue against it (this being his finest

performance). I think you could make a case for a couple of races, but this one

would be hard to argue against.

"He's still a young horse and he's going to mature some

more and I think the people who looked at him today can see that he was carrying

a little more weight. He's still training on a regular schedule which is a

little bit hard for these kinds of horses, and he's gaining weight, not losing."