Shared Belief romps in Los Alamitos Derby

Jungle Racing LLC, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer et al's Shared Belief proved an

easy winner of Saturday's Grade 2, $500,500

Los Alamitos Derby in his first

appearance against stakes rivals since December.

With Mike Smith in the irons for the first time, Shared Belief stalked

outside of the pacesetting Can the Man through fractions of :23 2/5, :47 2/5 and

1:11. The Candy Ride gelding drew even with that rival as Candy Boy came up to

his outside, and the three ran in tandem around the turn.

It didn't take long, though, for Shared Belief to shake loose from his

rivals. The sophomore effortlessly drew off to record a 4 1/4-length victory

while finishing nine furlongs on Los Alamitos' fast dirt in 1:47. He paid $3.40

for the win as the 3-5 favorite against his six rivals.

Candy Boy entered this one off a troubled 13th-placing in the Kentucky Derby

on May 3. The John Sadler pupil was best of the rest on this occasion, 7 1/4

lengths in front of Tonito M. Friendswith K Mill came next while Can the Man,

Top Fortitude and Eddie's First rounded out the order of finish.

Shared Belief made a name for himself in California last year, breaking his

maiden by seven lengths for trainer J.B. Josephson before being purchased

privately and transferred to Hollendorfer. A month later he made his stakes

debut in the Hollywood Prevue and once again encountered no threat when pulling

away to a 7 3/4-length score. The dark bay gelding closed out his juvenile

campaign with a 5 3/4-length win in the CashCall Futurity while stretching out

to 1 1/16 miles, and just a month later found himself honored as the champion

two-year-old male of 2013 at the Eclipse Award ceremony.

Shared Belief was scheduled to return in the Robert B. Lewis in early

February at Santa Anita Park, but foot problems plagued the young champion and

he was eventually sidelined. Off since since his CashCall Futurity score,

the gelding returned to the worktab on April 15 at Golden Gate Fields, covering

three furlongs in :38 2/5.

Shared Belief continued to work regularly over the Tapeta before finally

entering the starting gate for the first time since December in a May 26

allowance at Golden Gate Fields. He wired that six-furlong contest and stretched

out to 1 1/8 miles for Saturday's Los Alamitos Derby.

Now a perfect five-for-five, Shared Belief has bankrolled

$772,200. The Kentucky-bred originally raced for his breeders, Pam and Marty Wygod,

and is out of the winning Storm Cat mare Common Hope. That mare is also

responsible for Grade 3 victress Little Miss Holly and the stakes-placed Double

Major.

This is the family of Grade 1 queen Key Phrase, the dam of stakes-winning

sire Yankee Gentleman and ancestress of Grade 2 scorer Half Ours and Grade 3

heroine Khancord Kid. Also of note in this female line are English champion

two-year-old filly *Rich and Rare II and 1999 Canadian champion three-year-old

filly Gandria.

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