While his Kentucky Derby victory remains in limbo pending a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission ruling, the next start for Medina Spirit was made quite clear this morning.
Medina Spirit was supplemented, at a cost of $1,000, to Sunday's $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes, a one-mile event for 3-year-olds on the Del Mar main track. It will be the first start for the son of Protonico since finishing third, beaten 5 ½-lengths by Rombauer in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 15.
“I've entered him, he's running,” Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said. “I figure I'll use this as a prep for the Penn ($1 million Pennsylvania Derby, Sept. 25) and see how he likes this track.”
Days earlier, Baffert had indicated the Shared Belief was being given strong consideration but he was waiting to see another workout before finalizing a decision. Medina Spirit covered five furlongs in :58.60 on Monday, tied with stablemate Ax Man for the fastest of 68 works at the distance and better than a half-second quicker than the next most rapid.
“He worked a little fast but he came out of it good,” Baffert said. “He's going to need the race, coming off a layoff, and he's got to go a mile. But if I can run him here that will set him up to go on to the Pennsylvania Derby.”
Medina Spirit joining previously committed Rock Your World in the Shared Belief would set up a rematch of the Santa Anita Derby in which Rock Your World prevailed by 4 ¼ lengths to go three-for-three to that point in his career.
Rock Your World, trained by John Sadler, would subsequently finish 17th, beaten 24 ¼ lengths by Medina Spirit, in the Kentucky Derby and sixth, beaten 22 lengths by Essential Quality in the Belmont Stakes on June 5.
The field for the Shared Belief Stakes from the rail with jockeys in parentheses: Willy The Cobbler (Victor Espinoza); Medina Spirit (John Velazquez); Rock Your World (Umberto Rispoli); Team Merchants (Mario Gutierrez); The Great One (Flavien Prat), and Stilleto Boy (Kent Desormeaux).
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