Connections of Shared Belief's brother look to a second start

Murat Sancal last Saturday debuted Shared Legacy, the full brother of the late Shared Belief, on dirt. But the trainer saw action from his charge that could eventually lead the colt to turf.

“We know he’s a two-turn horse,” Sancal said. “Surface-wise, we’re going to see.”

Having finished last of 12 in the maiden special weight race at seven furlongs, Shared Legacy will go at least once more on the main track, likely on the Kentucky Derby undercard. He'll continue to carry some high hopes as a Candy Ride colt out of the Storm Cat mare Common Hope.

“Everybody wants to see Shared Belief in him, but he’s not him. He has a different personality,” Sancal said. “There’s different things. We just cannot create another Shared Belief. It’s not going to happen. That was a tremendous horse, but we will do the best to make this horse be as close to that as he can be.”

Sancal trains for Arif Kurtel, who initially sent Shared Legacy through the auction ring at Keeneland’s 2017 September Yearling Sale. But the colt didn’t meet reserve at $1.9 million. And so they’ll race the homebred.

Shared Belief, who rose to fame after Kurtel purchased his dam for $125,000, won 10 of 12 lifetime starts, earning $2.9 million, before dying in 2015 after a bout of colic.

“He’s a really good horse — still is — just maybe he had a bad race,” Sancal said of Shared Legacy’s debut. you know. This happens. We brought him back. We checked everything. We did some therapy, He’s eating good and everything is fine with him.

“He wasn’t affected too much from the race. There’s nothing wrong with him. It was just an unlucky day and a short race. He’s just not going to handle those turns for seven furlongs.”

Sancal noted that as Shared Legacy never ran higher than ninth, Island Song, who cut fractions of 22.48 and 45.39 seconds, only faded to fifth over what may have been a speed-favoring surface.

“That’s not going to be his style,” Sancal said, repeating that “he’s a two-turn horse.  We’re 100% on this.”

Shared Legacy’s maiden flight produced one other colt to watch: the winner. Honest Mischief, a second-out Juddmonte Farms homebred trained by Chad Brown, cruised to an eight-length victory.