NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND SANTA ANITA PARK..........STARTS FRIDAY

                                                                                                                                     

 

• CHAMP SHARED BELIEF SHARP FOR AWESOME AGAIN
• BAFFERT MULLS BC CLASSIC FOR VERSATILE BAYERN
• ECLIPSE CHAMPION BEHOLDER READY FOR ZENYATTA
• TWO DECADES LATER, DESORMEAUX STILL ON A ROLL

 

SHARED BELIEF GALLOPS OUT STRONG FOR AWESOME AGAIN

            Undefeated male 2-year-old champion of 2013 Shared Belief worked four furlongs over Golden Gate’s synthetic Tapeta surface Tuesday morning in 47 3/5, handily, galloping out five furlongs in 1:01 flat under jockey Ricardo Gonzalez.

“He galloped out strong,” Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said by phone after the Candy Ride gelding’s final major drill for the Grade I, $300,000, “Win and You’re In’ Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday. “It was a very nice work. He’ll ship to Santa Anita tomorrow.

“The track was a little faster today, so he went a little faster,” Hollendorfer said of the Golden Gate strip. “He was really reaching out.”

Owned by a partnership that includes Hollendorfer, sports talk show host Jim Rome and his wife, Janet’s, Jungle Racing, Kevin and Kim Nish’s KMN Racing, Jason Litt, George Todaro and Alex Solis II, Shared Belief has earned $1,372,200 from six career victories, including the Grade I Pacific Classic against older horses on Aug. 24.

 

BAFFERT MULLS OPTIONS FOR BAYERN; ‘CHROME’ EYES CLASSIC

Fresh from a powerful front-running, track record-setting victory in Saturday’s Pennsylvania Derby, Bayern thrust himself into the Breeders’ Cup Classic picture as a major player, although Bob Baffert didn’t rule out other options for the son of Offlee Wild owned by Kaleem Shah.

“He could run in three races,” the Hall of Fame trainer said: “the Sprint, the (Dirt) Mile or the Classic. That’s how versatile he is. That’s how good he is. He’s a pretty good horse if he can do all that, right? All the great ones can do that, though.”

Bayern (pronounced BY-earn) has won at distances from seven furlongs to 1 1/8 miles. Of his five victories from nine starts, his combined margin of victory is just under 40 lengths, an average of nearly eight lengths per triumph.

Sean McCarthy, who had planned to run Gold Cup at Santa Anita winner Majestic Harbor in the Classic off his sixth-place finish in the Pacific Classic, said Tuesday morning the son of the late Rockport Harbor would run in the Awesome Again.

“There’s just no reason not to run him,” the trainer said. “There’s no reason to be sitting around waiting two months in between races and working and working and working when you can go ahead and race, so that’s what we’re doing.”

California Chrome, meanwhile, was none the worse for wear following his disappointing sixth-place finish in Saturday’s Pennsylvania Derby behind Bayern, who was ridden and rated perfectly by Martin Garcia.

“He came back fine,” trainer Art Sherman said from his Los Alamitos headquarters. “He looks good. He didn’t have the greatest trip in the world, but we’ll live to fight another day.”

That would be in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.

“I was blocked a little bit,” said California Chrome’s regular rider, Victor Espinoza, at Clockers’ Corner Tuesday morning. “They slowed down pretty good on the first turn (going the first quarter in a leisurely 24 seconds). That kind of hurt me right there.

“It was a little stressful for me because I wanted to let him go, but I had nowhere to go and no room to go. Nevertheless, he ran a good race, and for his being away for such a long time (since June 7, when the Kentucky Derby winner dead-heated for fourth in the Belmont Stakes), things like that will happen.

“Now he has a month before his next race. I think he’ll be 100 percent.”

The next race for Candy Boy, third in the Pennsylvania Derby, is on hold. “No plans,” trainer John Sadler said Tuesday morning. “He came back fine Sunday, but no plans yet.”

 

CHAMP BEHOLDER FIRES BULLET FOR ZENYATTA STAKES

Beholder, fully recovered from an injury in the Ogden Phipps in which she finished fourth on June 7, worked seven furlongs Saturday under new rider Mike Smith in a bullet 1:25.60.