Shared Belief arrives for Classic, scheduled for gate work
and gallop
Undefeated champion and Breeders’ Cup Classic early favorite
Shared Belief arrived at Santa Anita at 6:30 p.m. (CDT) Tuesday after vanning south
from his home base at Golden Gate Fields.
“He shipped fine and just walked this morning,” said Dan
Ward, assistant to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. “He will go to the gate and stand
Thursday and gallop and will be going out at 6:45.”
Shared Belief, seeking to become the first three-year-old to win the
Classic since Raven’s Pass here in 2008, will be ridden by Mike Smith.
Smith, who has won a record 20 Breeders’ Cup races that
include three in the Classic — Skip Away (1997), Zenyatta (2009) and Drosselmeyer
(2011) — has ridden the unbeaten Shared Belief in his past three starts.
“The first time I ever got on him was the Los Alamitos
Derby because he trains up north and Russell (Baze) works him,” Smith
explained. “The
initial thing I noticed about him was his length.
“He is extremely long and has great balance. He is very unique in that he can
adapt during a race. That ability is really a huge plus.”
With Smith in the saddle, Shared Belief has captured the Grade 2 Los Alamitos
Derby, Grade 1 Pacific Classic and Grade 1 Awesome Again in succession. The
Candy Ride gelding has been made the 9-5 morning-line favorite for the 1
1/4-mile Classic and will break from post position 6.
Belmont Stakes hero and Classic hopeful Tonalist also arrived at Santa Anita Tuesday evening
as part of trainer Christophe Clement’s three-horse brigade for this year’s
Breeders’ Cup, and was out on the track Wednesday morning for an easy jog once
around the oval followed by a visit to the paddock under exercise rider Lee
Vickers.
“The trip across the country went fine,” reported
Christophe Lorieul, Clement’s longtime top assistant. “We’re in good shape.”
Trainer Peter Miller said the only
also-eligible for the Classic, Big Cazanova, was shipped from San Luis Rey Downs to Santa Anita
Wednesday morning after jogging two miles and going to the gate.
Miller reiterated that he would wait as long as possible
Friday in hopes of the Argentine-bred son of Giant’s Causeway getting into the Classic with a scratch.
If not, he is also entered in the Grade 2 Las Vegas Marathon Friday and would run there
instead.
Breeders’ Cup Distaff entrant Ria Antonia did not waste any time getting reacquainted with
the Santa Anita track by jogging at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning with Corey Black
aboard.
“We got here at 5:30 last night, just in time to catch the
rush hour traffic,” said Katie Allen, who traveled with the sophomore filly from her
home base at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.
Trained by Tom Amoss, the Rockport Harbor miss is scheduled to gallop
Thursday morning at
the same time and visit the paddock.
Breeders’ Cup Turf new arrivals Finnegans Wake, Hardest Core, Imagining and
Twilight Eclipse were all doing well Wednesday.
Trainer Peter Miller said Finnegans Wake was shipped from San Luis Rey Downs to Santa Anita Wednesday morning after
jogging two miles and going to the gate.
Hardest Core arrived safely at Santa Anita early Tuesday evening after an
uneventful Fed Ex flight from Newark, New Jersey, that also contained horses from the Christophe Clement stable. The Eddie Graham trainee settled in well to Barn 106 in a
stall adjacent to Breeders’ Cup Sprint contender Work All Week and got his first
taste of Santa Anita around 7 a.m. Wednesday morning.
“He just galloped nice and easy today, though he was definitely very strong,”
exercise rider Jody Petty said. “I just jogged him up to the half-mile pole
and galloped the turn.”
The tall bay is trained on Graham’s farm in Unionville,
Pennsylvania, and is not as accustomed to the commotion of the racetrack.
“I took him out just before the break so we could avoid all
the horses,” Petty added. “That way we could be going out when most of them
were coming back. If he sees horses in front of him galloping, he will try to
pass them all. He only passed two that he saw and is definitely feeling good.”
Imagining galloped “an easy
mile and a quarter” for trainer Shug McGaughey Wednesday morning after
arriving from Belmont Park on Tuesday.
“What I’m really kind of excited about is running him over
this turf course where it’s a little bit quicker and will carry him a little bit
farther than Belmont,” McGaughey said. “Here, he can run on top of the ground
instead of going right into it. I think it’s something he’ll really like.”
Twilight Eclipse, the world-record
holder at the 1 1/2-mile distance of the Turf, handled the cross country trip from
New York on Tuesday without incident and jogged once around the track Wednesday morning
under exercise rider Hector Hernandez and was scheduled to school in the paddock
on Thursday.
Tom Albertrani, who trains him for West Point
Thoroughbreds, said that his horse could not look any better as he kept his eye
on the weather forecast.
“He’s been a unlucky in that it has rained in the days
before his his last three races, which were all Grade 1s, and even though he
ran very well and just missed by a neck in two of them, he prefers nice firm
ground,” Albertrani said. “I’m hoping the weather holds and the turf stays the
way it is.”
Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint hopeful Better Lucky arrived with stablemate Twilight Eclipse and was reported to have
handled the excursion without turning a hair. On Wednesday morning, the multiple
Grade 1-winning Ghostzapper mare was sent to the track for a jog
once around under Hernandez.
“She has been so consistent throughout her entire career.
She’s an extremely nice mare,” Albertrani praised.
Work All
Week, who earned his spot in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint via victory in
Keeneland’s Grade 3 Phoenix, arrived Tuesday evening at Santa Anita after a delayed flight from Kentucky and took up
residence in Barn 106. On Wednesday around 8 a.m., the Roger Brueggemann-trained son
of City Zip got his first taste of the main track with an easy 1 1/2-mile
gallop.
“He was a little stiff from the trip, but other than that
it went great,” Brueggemann said. “Today we just had an exercise rider I
borrowed from Tom Amoss. Tomorrow (regular jockey) Florent (Geroux) will be in
to gallop him.”
The
Wesley Ward-trained trio of Undrafted, No Nay Never and Judy the Beauty arrived
around 11 a.m. Wednesday morning after a delayed flight from Kentucky. No Nay
Never and Judy the Beauty are morning-line favorites for the Breeders’ Cup
Turf Sprint and Filly & Mare Sprint, respectively, with Undrafted scheduled
to join the former in the Turf Sprint gate. All are expected to
hit the track Thursday morning, with champion jockey Frankie Dettori astride
race mount No Nay Never.
“They’ve all arrived and we’re excited,” Ward said.
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies entrant By the Moon had an easy jog with exercise rider Tom Singh aboard
Wednesday morning on her first day at Santa Anita.
“We got in about 5:30 yesterday afternoon and she shipped
well,” said trainer Michelle Nevin, who will saddling her first Breeders’ Cup
starter. “She will gallop tomorrow, then jog Friday and won’t go to the track
Saturday morning.”
Saturday’s race will be the first around two turns for By
the Moon, winner of the Frizette on a sealed, sloppy track in her most recent
start. The Indian Charlie filly worked five furlongs in 1:02 2/5 on Monday at Belmont
Park.
Trainer Peter Miller reported that both of his two-year-olds — Calculator
(Juvenile) and Hennythelovepenny (Juvenile Fillies) — were shipped from San Luis Rey Downs to Barn 44 at Santa Anita Wednesday morning. Before their departure, Calculator jogged 1
1/2 miles and Hennythelovepenny galloped the same distance, according to the trainer.
In other Breeders’ Cup news:
This weekend’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships will, for the first time, be held under newly enacted
national uniform medication reforms adopted in California and currently in the
process of being adopted and implemented in other racing jurisdictions across
the United States.
Breeders’ Cup runners will compete under California
regulations and house rules that enforce three of the national reforms regarding
medications, furosemide (Lasix) administration and accredited laboratory
testing.
Effective October 1, California adopted the Controlled Therapeutic
Medication Schedule establishing permitted thresholds for medications that have
been recognized as necessary for the routine treatment of illness or injury in
the horse.
Protocols will be in place again this year requiring third-party
administration of furosemide as well as enhanced security — limiting access to
the horse on race day. Post-race testing of Breeders’ Cup runners will be
conducted at the University of California-Davis Kenneth
L. Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory — an RMTC-accredited facility.
The RMTC consists of 23 racing industry stakeholders and
organizations that represent Thoroughbred, Standardbred, American Quarter Horse
and Arabian racing. The organization works to develop and promote uniform rules,
policies and testing standards at the national level; coordinate research and
educational programs that seek to ensure the integrity of racing and the health
and welfare of racehorses and participants; and protect the interests of the
racing public.
For additional information, visit
rmtcnet.com or contact Hallie Lewis, RMTC director of communications, at
859-224-2848.
The Breeders’ Cup will also, for the first time, be integrating a live social media stream
in its real time video coverage. The social media activation will feature two
custom hashtags and take the shape of a highly engaging Social Media Wall to be
integrated into the Players’ Show as well as dedicated televisions throughout
Santa Anita.
Designed to further engage attendees, the Social Media Wall will consistently display tweets, Instagram photos and Facebook posts as the races unfold each day. The event’s
massive Jumbotron will also be showcasing an array of these posts in 15 second
spots every hour. All fans must do is incorporate one of the two official
hashtags — #BreedersCup and #BC14 — when uploading their pictures, posts and
tweets. By doing this they will have the opportunity to see their personal posts
displayed on the Social Media Wall, Jumbotron and select monitors throughout the
World Championships.
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