Shared Belief Fine After Awesome Again Mugging

Rain danced briefly and intermittently on Clockers’ Corner Sunday morning, but not enough to put a damper on the buzz of the hour, the controversial running of Saturday’s Awesome Again Stakes and the heated, in-your-face aftermath involving jockeys and owners.

The hubbub began when Sky Kingdom, a 36-1 shot trained by Bob Baffert and ridden by Victor Espinoza, drifted out on the first turn in the mile and an eighth race, causing undefeated 2-5 favorite Shared Belief trained by Jerry Hollendorfer and ridden by Mike Smith to fan out.

Fed Biz, the 6-1 second choice in the Breeders’ Cup Challenge race, also trained by Baffert, was on or near the lead under Martin Garcia. Assertions and allegations from experts and hoi polloi alike were immediate: Sky Kingdom carried Shared Belief wide to get him beat.

Shared Belief, showing he is all heart, overcame the antics to win by a neck despite going five wide into the second turn and four wide into the stretch to best a game Fed Biz.

The good news is that all combatants came out of the scrum in good shape and will live to do battle if so inclined in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.

But opinions were still as plentiful as blond anchors on Fox News.

“These guys are fierce competitors,” Baffert said, alluding to Espinoza, Smith and their contemporaries. “I see it happen to my horses when you have a good one. I didn’t tell Victor to do that. He stayed away from my other horse, Fed Biz . . . Game On Dude, that’s why I retired him, because he was starting to get mugged, every race. I didn’t cry about it. I just retired him.”

“I don’t know exactly what Victor was doing,” Smith said during his Sunday morning rounds on the backstretch. “My horse overcame it and showed a lot of fight. He finished the race strong and he had to work for it after being taken out (wide).

“But he came out of the race good. I just went to see him. He ate up, he’s happy, so all’s good. Sometimes a good race like that will put more in him.”

Hollendorfer confirmed what Smith said about Shared Belief’s post-race condition. “He came out of it real nice,” the Hall of Famer said. “Everything’s good.”

Asked about the incident just after the race was official, Hollendorfer said, “We’re all big boys . . . It’s no big deal for me. Mike will have to settle with Victor. It’s not the worst thing in the world to have a tough race and be double-fit for the Breeders’ Cup. That race will be tougher so we need to be tougher, too.”

He confirmed those thoughts Sunday morning. “We’re big boys out here racing and as long as we won, we overcame a lot, so I’m grateful to get the win.”

Perhaps Sean McCarthy, who sent out Majestic Harbor to a fourth-place finish in the Awesome Again, summed it up best: “It had,” he said, “all the drama you wanted.”

Source: Santa Anita Park