Shared Belief, the 9-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s $5 million
Breeders’ Cup Classic, completed his major training Tuesday morning at Golden
Gate Fields by working four furlongs in :52 2/5 with Russell Baze aboard at 7
a.m. (PDT).
“After the work, Russell said it was awesome,” trainer Jerry Hollendorfer
said. “He said there is a lot left in the tank.”
Shared Belief was scheduled to arrive at Santa Anita around 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Undefeated in seven starts, Shared Belief passed his only Santa Anita test in
his most recent start, the Awesome Again on September 27. Tuesday’s work over
the Tapeta surface at Golden Gate was his fourth since the Awesome Again with
two of the drills being bullet works.
“He will walk tomorrow and then gallop Thursday and Friday,” said
Hollendorfer, whose lone previous Classic starter was Nonios who finished sixth
in the 2012 renewal here. “He won’t go to the track Saturday morning.”
Travers winner V. E. Day breezed four furlongs at Santa Anita in :48 3/5
under exercise rider Kelvin Pahal.
“He went really good. We weren’t looking for a whole lot. He had worked a
half-mile before we left for here,” trainer Jimmy Jerkens said.
V. E. Day is coming off a troubled sixth-place finish in the Jockey Club Gold
Cup at Belmont on September 27.
“I usually don’t kid myself about giving horses excuses, but I thought he had
a lot of them that day,” Jerkens said. “We were going to call it a year or run
in the Discovery (Handicap at Aqueduct), but we got to thinking, ‘you know what?
Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.’ The more I watched the race, he would
have had to be Citation to win that race. He got hung out so wide.”
V. E. Day had won his previous four races, including an upset over stablemate
Wicked Strong by a nose in the Travers. He has been victorious on turf and dirt.
“He’s a beautiful, big, long horse with a beautiful, absolutely gorgeous
shoulder. He just has the mechanics to cover the ground,” Jerkens said. “He’s
got the same way of going on both surfaces.”
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