shared belief | Horse Racing Free Tips - Part 2

Thousand Words ‘Peaking At The Right Time’ For Kentucky Derby Bid

Albaugh Family Stables' and Spendthrift Farm's Thousand Words defeated top three Kentucky Derby candidate Honor A. P. in his most recent start, the listed Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar, but the 3-year-old son of Pioneerof the Nile will likely have double digit odds on Sept. 5. In an interview with America's Best Racing, the Albaugh's racing manager Jason Loutsch reported that Thousand Words is in great form ahead of the Run for the Roses.

“He came out of the race tremendous,” Loutsch said, referring to the Shared Belief victory. “He is doing really, really good. He is peaking at the right time. We're excited.”

The winner of both the G2 Los Alamitos Futurity last fall and G3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes in February, Thousand Words started to go off form in March of this year.

“The horse has a little bit of an attitude,” Loutsch said. “He needed to mature and just wasn't happy. He needed to get healthy and happy and feeling good. He ran a dull race in the San Felipe Stakes (4th) and then we shipped him to Oaklawn Park (for the April 11 Oaklawn Stakes, in which he finished 11th). It was a sloppy track and he broke terrible. We thought if we gave him 30 days off we'd still have time with the Derby delayed this year.

“That's the only real positive for us in the COVID deal. It's been a difficult year for all of us. The only positive is that we gave the horse a little time to mature, he got happy and it allowed us to qualify for the Derby.”

Thousand Words is scheduled to arrive at Churchill Downs on Monday, alongside stablemate Authentic.

Out of the talented sprint mare Pomeroys Pistol, Thousand Words was a $1 million yearling at the Keeneland September sale. The colt was bred in Florida by Hardacre Farm, and has a record of four wins and a second from seven starts with earnings of $327,000.

Read more at America's Best Racing.

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Honor A. P. Tops Six Seeking Derby Points In Shared Belief Stakes

In a season of unusual happenings, Saturday's Shared Belief Stakes fits right in. The 3-year-old feature – which has drawn six very interesting runners — breaks new ground in that it is the first time a Kentucky Derby prep race has been conducted at the seaside oval in its 81-year history.

Of course, this is Kentucky Derby 146 upcoming and it's the first time it has been conducted on the first Saturday of September. That, too, fits right in.

Del Mar's $100,000 “Derby Prep” is normally a mile race at the end of August. But in anticipation of its new role, it was shifted to the beginning of August and lengthened to a mile and one sixteenth. It will carry Derby “points” of 50-20-10-5 for its first four finishers.

Heading the lineup are a pair of colts with short, but sparkling, resumes in C R K Stable's Honor A. P. and Pegram, Watson and Weitman's Uncle Chuck. The former has been hung the 8-5 morning line favorite, while the latter is right behind him at 9-5.

Honor A.P., a ridgling by Honor Code and a grandson of champion and prolific sire A.P. Indy, comes into the race off a tally in the Santa Anita Derby on June 6. He was second in the San Felipe at Santa Anita in his race prior to that and has been training forwardly at Del Mar for his “prep.” Mike Smith, who has handled Honor A.P. in all four of his starts so far, once again has the call Saturday.

Uncle Chuck, a colt by Uncle Mo, has only raced twice, but both times he was especially impressive. He scored by seven lengths in a Maiden Special Weight race at Santa Anita in June in his debut, then came right back on July 4 to handily capture the Los Alamitos Derby at the Orange County track. He, too, has looked good in the mornings in his Del Mar works and gets the saddle services of Drayden Van Dyke for the Shared Belief.

However, trainer Bob Baffert is expected to scratch Uncle Chuck from the Shared Belief in favor of the Travers at Saratoga.

The remainder of the lineup consists of Albaught Family stables or Spendthrift Farm's Thousand Words (Abel Cedillo the rider); Peter Redekop's Anneau d'Or (Victor Espinoza); John Sondereker's Kiss Today Goodbye (Umberto Rispoli), and Mangier, Tabor or Smith, et al's Cezanne (Flavien Prat).

The Shared Belief will be the second of 11 races on the Saturday card, which also features the Grade I, $250 Bing Crosby Stakes and the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Stakes.

First post on all programs at Del Mar this summer is 2 p.m.

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