ESPN Horse A new gelding stands at center stage

There was no official ceremony, but in the figurative sense, a torch was passed at Monday's post position draw for the Breeders' Cup.

In each of the past two years, it was pair of gallant, older geldings that supplied much of the drama and excitement at the 29th and 30th editions of the world championships. Wise Dan and Game On Dude each came into 2012 and 2013 Breeders' Cup with a strong chance to be named horse of the year, an honor that went to Wise Dan on both occasions.

Now, with Game On Dude retired and Wise Dan nursing an injury, another gelding has stepped to the forefront.

In Shared Belief, Thoroughbred racing has a young, dynamic runner to play the starring role filled so capably by other geldings the past two years. Shared Belief is undefeated through seven career starts and is owned in part by hip and flip sports talk host Jim Rome, who oozes charisma.

At Monday's draw, Shared Belief was installed as a 9-5 favorite in the series' richest and most important race, the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic. It was a tip of the hat to the 3-year-old gelding's undefeated record and stature as the leading candidate for horse of the year.

Even against an outstanding field of challengers, some believe that price for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer's gelding is a bargain.

"Jerry should be 6-to-5," trainer Art Sherman said last week. "He's a real race horse."

Sherman trains no less of a BC Classic entrant than California Chrome, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness earlier in the year. In virtually any other year, California Chrome would be the star of the show at the Breeders' Cup. Yet in this renewal at Santa Anita, while California Chrome has lost some of his shine after losses in his last two races, Shared Belief has dazzled with recent victories over older horses in a pair of Grade 1 stakes, the Pacific Classic at Del Mar and the Awesome Again at Santa Anita.

Those last two races give him a win at the BC Classic's 1¼-mile distance (in the Pacific Classic) and over the Santa Anita racetrack (Awesome Again) and make him a highly imposing figure, even against a deep and talented field with at least three other horse of the year candidates.

"It's hard to expect a horse to be undefeated, so I'm very grateful that he has come along and done whatever we've asked him to do," says Hollendorfer, a 2011 Hall of Fame inductee.

For Shared Belief, the Breeders' Cup Classic offers a chance to finally cash in on opportunities that went awry earlier in his career.

He missed last year's Breeders' Cup as he did not make his first start until Oct. 19, less than two weeks before the 2013 world championships at Santa Anita. His seven-length romp in that debut race was so impressive that it convinced Hollendorfer to buy Shared Belief in a partnership with Rome's Jungle Racing, George Todaro, Alex Solis II, Joshua Litt and Kevin and Kim Nish.

The belief they shared in the son of Candy Ride was rewarded with lopsided wins in the Grade 3 Hollywood Prevue and the season-ending Grade 1 CashCall Futurity that earned the gelding an Eclipse Award as the year's champion 2-year-old.

He became a logical favorite for the Kentucky Derby but never made it to the Triple Crown due to a foot injury that delayed his 3-year-old debut until May 26.

Now in one fell swoop, he can make up for all that lost time by cementing horse of the year honors and becoming just the second undefeated runner to win the Classic.

"It's been a long journey, but we're right on our schedule, so we'll just see if we can follow through," Hollendorfer said. "He's doing very well ... so we're happy to be at that point at this time."

The Classic will present Shared Belief with the greatest challenge of his young career. To remain undefeated, among a full field of 14 he will have to fend off fellow 3-year-olds and horse of the year candidates California Chrome, Belmont Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Tonalist, and Haskell and Pennsylvania Derby victor Bayern, plus Travers winner V.E. Day and formidable older rivals such as Moreno and Zivo.

It will be a challenge for both horse and rider Mike Smith, whose mount is tractable enough to race just off the lead or midpack during the early stages of the mile and a quarter contest.

"It turns into a rider's race, especially when you have a lot of horses in the field," Hollendorfer said. "So you just have to count on your rider to make the right decision and lay the horse where the horse is comfortable and where the rider's comfortable that he can make his moves to either get through traffic or get out or help position himself to let the horse run. I think that's how the race is going to go. It's going to end up being a rider's race."

If the race goes Shared Belief's way, he will make it a hat trick for geldings in terms of horse of the year.

The torch, it seems, is in very good hands.