The presentation of the Pacific Classic Stakes (G1)Aug. 31marks the 10th anniversary of the victory by Shared Belief in Del Mar's most important race. The gelded son of 2003 Pacific Classic winner Candy Ride carried the Jungle Racing colors of sports talk media star Jim Rome for the Hall of Fame team of Jerry Hollendorfer and Mike Smith.
"I was shocked when I saw that," Rome said this week. "Time is a really weird thing. It gets depressing sometimes, but I can't believe it was 10 years ago."
Shared Belief was making his sixth start in the 2014Pacific Classic. He was fresh from an effortless score over 2014 Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G2) winner Candy Boy in the Los Alamitos Derby (G2). The field of 10 in the Classic included defending champ Game On Dude, 2014 Gold Cup at Santa Anita (G1) winner Majestic Harbor, and Imperative, who would go on to a $3 million career. Toast of New York, winner of the 2014 U.A.E. Derby (G2) and Mystery Train, winner of a group 1 race in Argentina, were the wild cards.
After being pestered on the pace by Mystery Train, Game On Dude opened a healthy lead around the final turn. Toast of New York, under Victor Espinoza, moved on him first, but Smith had Shared Belief on the go. Shared Belief passed Toast of New York and Game On Dude with a sudden, thrilling burst to win by 2 3/4 lengths, although the trophy presentation had to wait for an inquiry based on Espinoza's contention that Smith dropped over before he had cleared. Victor sold it well, but not quite well enough.
Shared Belief's brief time on the racing stage was marked by a series of unforgettable performances. He lost just two of 12 starts, but in order to beat him you had to apply extraordinary measures.
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He made his final start in the 2015 Charles Town Classic Stakes (G2), sustaining a fracture to his right hip after an awkward start. Shared Belief went into that racesix weeks after winning the Santa Anita Handicap (G1) by 4 1/4lengths over Moreno—the same Moreno who ended up winning that fateful Charles Town Classic. Before that, Shared Belief handled California Chrome in the 2015 San Antonio Invitational Stakes (G2), a showdown of champions.
"He was a super horse," said Rome, rightfully prejudiced. "It was his extreme athleticism, his grit, his fire, how competitive he was. He was the horse of a lifetime that took us on a ride of a lifetime. I've thought about him every day since."
Rome's "since" dates to Dec. 3, 2015, the day he got a call from Alex Solis II, the racing adviser and part owner who engineered the purchase of Shared Belief from his breeder, Pam and Marty Wygod. Shared Belief had worked that morning at Golden Gate Fields, cooled out, but then suffered an acute attack of colic. He was transported to the School of Veterinary Medicine at University of California-Davis, where heroic measures were not able to save him.
At the time, Shared Belief had fully recovered from his hip injury and was progressing toward a comeback. As a gelding, his future was strictly as a racehorse, and he already had proven to be among the best. That single loss in the 11 starts he made prior to Charles Town came in the rough and tumble Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) of 2014, when Bayern's erratic break clearly compromised Shared Belief and others in a chain reaction. Once straightened, Bayern sped to the front and led all the way to beat Toast of New York by a nose—the same Toast of New York Shared Belief easily handled in the Pacific Classic.
The 2014 renewal of the Pacific Classic came in the midst of a golden run of winners. When Game On Dude took the race in 2013 he capped a streak of six consecutive major scores, including the 2013 Santa Anita Handicap and what turned out to be the last Hollywood Gold Cup Handicap (G1) run at Hollywood Park. The 2015 Pacific Classic was the setting for Beholder's breathtaking victory by 8 1/4 lengths. She remains the only female winner in the Classic's 33 runnings.
And how good was California Chrome in the 2016 Pacific Classic? Beholder, who had won eight of her previous nine starts, finished five lengths back in second.
Rome can't help but dwell on any number of what-ifs when it comes to the foreshortened career of Shared Belief.
"Even though his life was cut tragically short, and we never know what might have been, I still think he was a Hall of Famer. I think he did enough. He checked a lot of very important boxes."
Rome has a point. In the years since Shared Belief's death froze his record at 10 wins in 12 starts, Arrogate (11 starts) and Justify (six starts) were elected to the Hall of Fame, while Flightline (six starts) will be eligible for consideration in 2028. Granted, Shared Belief did not win a Triple Crown event or a Breeders' Cup race. But he was achampion who was a grade 1 winner in each of three seasons, defeated older horses twice at age 3, and won races from sixfurlongs to 1 1/4 miles. Time will tell.
Before his run with Shared Belief, Rome won back-to-back versions of the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) in 2012-13with Mizdirection, a daughter of Mizzen Mast trained by Mike Puype. Eight days after thesecond of hertwo wins, Shared Belief made his first start for Jungle Racing in the Hollywood Prevue Stakes (G3). He followed that with a romp in the CashCall Futurity (G1) to nail down an Eclipse Award for champion 2-year-old male.
Rome is still in the game, both as a director of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and an owner with a variety of partners. He was asked if he ever goes down memory lane with Shared Belief videos.
"I do, though not as much as I used to," he said. "Maybe my favorite race ever was the one I did not attend, because I was away on business. It was the race with California Chrome, because so much was made of their rivalry, and it meant so much to the sport. The way he dug in and got it done was just amazing. I still wonder what might have been between those two, because of the way California Chrome went on to such a great season. So that race I still watch."
The remains of Shared Belief are buried in the Del Mar infield on a plot of ground that also holds the remains of Star Fiddle and Native Diver. Star Fiddle won the inaugural Del Mar Futurity Stakes in 1948 and led the Futurity post parade for several years after his retirement. Native Diver, the Cal-bred Hall of Famer, won the final start of his 81-race career in the 1967 Del Mar Handicap at Del Mar before his death that fall, also from colic. His remains were originally interred at Hollywood Park.
"It means the world to me, that Del Mar would commemorate him like that," Rome said. "I was there the day it was dedicated.
"The fact of the matter is, I have immense gratitude for the time we had with him," Rome added. "I understand that. But at the same time, if I'm being really transparent, a part of me died when that horse passed away. I love all of our horses, but him especially. I remember everything about him."
