Shared Belief faces eight in Charles Town Classic

Shared Belief romped in the Santa Anita Handicap last out (Benoit Photo)

Despite the presence of champion Shared Belief (Candy Ride), a field of nine
has been entered in Saturday’s $1.5 million

Charles Town Classic (G2). The lucrative contest is scheduled for 1 1/8
miles at the West Virginia track with an approximate post time of 6:05 p.m.
(EDT).

Shared Belief brings a 10-0-0 mark from 11 career starts into the race, which
will be his first outside of California. The Jerry Hollendorfer trainee was
unbeaten leading up to last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), including Grade 1
scores in the Pacific Classic and Awesome Again Stakes, and wound up fourth in
the Classic after a horrible start.

The dark bay gelding returned to the winner’s circle to close out his
sophomore campaign in the Malibu S. (G1) and thus far this season has added the
Santa Anita H. (G1) and San Antonio Invitational (G2) to his resume. Mike Smith
has been aboard Shared Belief since last July and makes the trip east along with
his mount.

“It’s an unknown,” Hollendorfer said in regards to Shared Belief handling
going around three turns on Charles Town’s six-furlong track. “But we have a
very athletic horse that has a big turn of foot. We think he should be able to
handle that and get the job done, or we wouldn’t come. I talked to Mike Smith,
and he was quite confident the horse would do well there. (Smith) has done well
there, himself, so I tend to think he knows what he’s talking about.”

Imperative is looking for the upset yet again in the Charles Town Classic (Charles Town/Coady Photography)

Imperative, who is now seeking a title defense of his own, hasn’t done much
since his shocking victory. In eight starts since last April the bay gelding has
placed just twice, finishing well-beaten thirds in the Pacific Classic and Gold
Cup at Santa Anita (G1). He even took a trip to the Japan Cup (Jpn-G1) but wound
up next-to-last in that 16-horse field. Despite all that, trainer George
Papaprodromou has not lost faith in his five-year-old charge.

“He got into trouble over there, bad trip and all that,” the horseman
asserted about Imperative’s foray to Japan. “The plan was always to come out
here to Charles Town and win this race. We always jump from one race to another,
but the plan was to come here. Shared Belief is a great horse. He’s a freak. But
Game on Dude was a freak and unbeatable. He can run. He can do it.”

Grade 1 victor Moreno (Ghostzapper) will try to provide an upset of his own
Saturday evening for trainer Eric Guillot, but the bay gelding will have to do
better than his second in the Big ‘Cap on March 7. The five-year-old was easily
caught by Shared Belief and left 4 1/4 lengths behind on the wire that day. He
returned three weeks later to just miss by a half-length when third in the New
Orleans H. (G2) last out. Cornelio Velasquez has the call for the first time on
Moreno.

General a Rod got back to his winning ways in the Challenger (SV Photography)

General a Rod (Roman Ruler) is looking for a return to the form that saw him
be a major player in Florida’s Kentucky Derby preps last season. The
Kentucky-bred captured the Gulfstream Park Derby and placed in both the Florida
Derby (G1) and Fountain of Youth S. (G2) prior to an unplaced effort in the
Kentucky Derby (G1).

The dark bay colt was one of the few who contested all three legs of the
Triple Crown, going on to be fourth in the Preakness S. (G1) and seventh in the
Belmont S. (G1). The latter race was his final one as a sophomore, and General a
Rod returned to be fourth in an allowance/optional claimer on January 14 before
switching from Mike Maker’s barn to Todd Pletcher’s shedrow in time for a 6
1/4-length triumph in the Challenger S. at Tampa Bay Downs on March 7. John
Velazquez was in the irons for that last one and has the call on Saturday.

“We’ve had this race under consideration for well over three seeks,” Pletcher
said. “He showed last year, on occasions, he’s very good. He got time off in the
fall and his last race was a step in the right direction. We’re optimistic. It’s
his third start off the layoff, and, hopefully, he’s sitting on a peak
performance.”