A Tribute to Shared Belief

The sport of horse racing received some very sad and shocking news today with the passing of Shared Belief due to a bout with colic. Shared Belief was a tremendous talent and a super star that the sport needed heading into 2016. He currently ranked 4th in the Longines World’s Best Horse Racehorse rankings-the 2nd best dirt horse in the world behind American Pharoah. He was ranked #1 in the world before being sidelined with injury in April.

His jockey Mike Smith was devastated by the news, posting this on his Facebook page: “I can’t stop crying right now. Shared Belief was one of the greatest and most special horses that I have ever ridden. Every day I woke up looking forward to being reunited with him. I am so thankful that I got to be part of his life. My thoughts and prayers go out to the connections as I know they are hurting too. RIP Champ.”

Jim Rome, part of Shared Belief’s ownership group, posted this: “Thoroughbred racing is a sport filled with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Some of the most thrilling and surreal moments of our entire lives have occurred in this sport. Unfortunately, today we have suffered our most devastating. We are all absolutely devastated. Shared Belief was a once in a lifetime horse. A champion, fighter and unbelievable talent who impacted and changed all of our lives. He loved to compete and run, and as heartbreaking as today is, we consider ourselves so fortunate to have been a part of this amazing animal’s life.”

Shared Belief’s career numbers: 12 Career starts, 10 wins. The winner of the American 2 Year Old Male Eclipse Award in 2013. He had the top Beyer Speed Figure for 2 year-olds in 2013 (106), the top Beyer Speed Figure for 3 year-olds in 2014 (115). And his 111 Beyer Speed Figure in the Santa Anita Handicap (his last win) was the top Beyer Speed Figure for all horses at the time when was he was sidelined from racing after the Charles Town Classic in April.

I was totally shocked and saddened by this news. I had to read the news bit twice as I was in disbelief. I was looking forward to his return to racing in 2016 and beyond. I was hoping to see him defend his Santa Anita Handicap Championship in person next March. I think he should win the 2015 Eclipse Award for Older Male Horse-this would be the most fitting way to remember him. The sport has lost a tremendously bright star.

Here is Shared Belief’s first start of his career–an impressive win. Even the announcer took note of his talent.

Here is his Awesome Again Stakes win that really demonstrated his fighting spirit.

Here is his biggest win of 2014, the TVG Pacific Classic where he posted a career best 115 Beyer Speed Figure.

The 2015 San Antonio Stakes deemed as “The Clash of the Titans” that saw him beat the 2014 Horse of the Year California Chrome,

And Shared Belief’s last win, probably the biggest of his career–the 2015 Santa Anita Handicap.

And a great tribute video:

RIP Shared Belief. A CHAMPION that will be dearly missed by many.

–Michael

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s