Shared Belief

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie

Pacific Classic next.

I would like to see him stay on dirt, as I think the Del Mar surface is an abomination that is especially ill suited for a horse that runs with Shared Beliefs style.

I've never been a fan of synthetic racing surfaces, but the cushion track at least played fairly similar to dirt, which was one of the two reasons I had no doubt Shared Belief would like dirt racing.

I'd hope Dorf gets some work with him over the track, but hell, that terrible surface has seen many horses work great over it in the mornings only to see them unable to run a step in the afternoon.

I'd just as soon see him go in one of the Arlington turf races, over anything at Del Mar.

I don't know what the track will be like this year at Del Mar. I thought last year was a definite abomination. There was actually a fairly big speed bias there last year. The track isn't usually like that. It usually plays like your typical synthetic track. Turf horses usually like it. Acclamation who is a grass horse won the Pacific Classic in 2011. Synthetic horses usually like it. Dullahan, who didn't seem to run really well on anything but synthetic (he won the Blue Grass at Keeneland), won the Pacific Classic. I don't see any reason why Shared Belief wouldn't love Del Mar. He ran great at Golden Gate in both of his races there. He ran great at Hollywood Park which was really a track that played half way in between a dirt and synthetic track.

Shared Belief looks like he can run on anything. So far he's run on 3 different tracks and he's undefeated. No matter how Del Mar plays this year, I would bet that Shared Belief has no problem with the track. He seems like a pretty adaptable type of horse. The handicap division on the west coast is terrible right now. I would definitely make Shared Belief the favorite for the Pacific Classic even though I rarely like 3 year olds in there.

[Indian Charlie]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

I don't know what the track will be like this year at Del Mar. I thought last year was a definite abomination. There was actually a fairly big speed bias there last year. The track isn't usually like that. It usually plays like your typical synthetic track. Turf horses usually like it. Acclamation who is a grass horse won the Pacific Classic in 2011. Synthetic horses usually like it. Dullahan, who didn't seem to run really well on anything but synthetic (he won the Blue Grass at Keeneland), won the Pacific Classic. I don't see any reason why Shared Belief wouldn't love Del Mar. He ran great at Golden Gate in both of his races there. He ran great at Hollywood Park which was really a track that played half way in between a dirt and synthetic track.

Shared Belief looks like he can run on anything. So far he's run on 3 different tracks and he's undefeated. No matter how Del Mar plays this year, I would bet that Shared Belief has no problem with the track. He seems like a pretty adaptable type of horse. The handicap division on the west coast is terrible right now. I would definitely make Shared Belief the favorite for the Pacific Classic even though I rarely like 3 year olds in there.

I didn't follow Del Mar last year and don't know anything about it being speed favoring.

Poly, Tapeta and Cushion are quite different from each other. Cushion plays the most like dirt.

His wins at Golden Gate were against such vastly inferior competition that I think those two races are pretty useless for evaporating him fairly.

I do think it's likely he'd win the Pacific Classic, but in my estimation, he is the most vulnerable in that spot.