Shared Belief rebounds from loss
Rebounding from the only loss of his career, Shared Belief outfinished long shot Conquest Two Step by a neck to win the Grade 1, $301,000 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds before 40,810 Friday on opening day of Santa Anita’s winter-spring season.
Unlike the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita in which Shared Belief was severely bothered twice early in the 1¼-mile race and had to settle for fourth, he enjoyed a clean trip in the 7-furlong Malibu Stakes.
Trained at Golden Gate Fields by Jerry Hollendorfer, who also co-owns him in a partnership that includes sports talk radio-TV personality Jim Rome, Shared Belief finished in 1 minute, 20.69 seconds and paid $3 for his eighth win in nine starts and his fourth in a Grade 1 event.
“My belief is that all good horses can run short and long, and really what I think today is that the horse just ran hard enough to win,” Hollendorfer said. “Now we’ll probably do the rematch.”
That would be the Grade 2, $500,000 San Antonio Stakes on Feb. 7 —a1 1⁄8- mile race in which Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Bayern and thirdplace finisher California Chrome also are expected to run.
Hollendorfer won the other Grade 1 event Friday at Santa Anita as Sam’s Sister, making her stakes debut, ran down 7-to-10 favorite Taris in the final yards for a half-length victory in the $301,000 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Sam’s Sister ran 7 furlongs in 1:22.52 and paid $27 for her fourth win in five starts.
Alert Bay, who, like Shared Belief, trains at Golden Gate Fields between races, collected his fourth straight stakes victory when he outfinished Home Run Kitten by a neck in the Grade 2, $201,250 Mathis Brothers Mile for 3-year-olds on turf.
Trained by Blaine Wright, Alert Bay ran 1 mile in 1:35.06 and paid $20.40 for his seventh win in 13 starts. His three previous stakes wins were on dirt in the Zia Park Derby and the Premier Handicap and British Columbia Derby at Hastings Park.
“He’s a special horse, and he can run on any surface,” Wright said.