ARCADIA, Calif. -- He's the best undefeated thoroughbred you may never have seen.
Shared Belief is 7 for 7 by an average margin of 8 lengths, but the 3-year-old gelding pretty much has stayed out of the spotlight.
He was voted 2-year-old champion despite skipping the 2013 Breeders' Cup, didn't participate in the Triple Crown races, and he still hasn't raced outside California.
But you might be familiar with Shared Belief's co-owner, sports-talk host Jim Rome, who will watch his superstar face his marquee moment in today's $5 million, 1 1/4-mile Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita.
The Classic will be the 13th and final Grade I race run during two-day Breeders Cup World Championships, after four races were run Friday and nine scheduled for today, with nearly $25 million in prize money at stake.
Shared Belief is the 9-5 morning-line favorite, but among his 13 opponents are Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome (4-1), Belmont Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Tonalist (5-1), Bayern (6-1), champion of the Haskell and Pennsylvania Derby and Whitney winner Moreno (20-1).
Shared Belief is stabled at Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer's barn at Golden Gate Fields, a minor-league outpost near San Francisco. Nothing significant happens at Golden Gate, which runs lots of $5,000 claimers over a synthetic surface. Hollendorfer, Northern California's undisputed king since the mid-1980s, also knows how to campaign big-time runners, having won the Kentucky Oaks, the filly version of the Kentucky Derby, three times.
Unlike Rome, famous for his in-your-face, "I am right" shtick, Hollendorfer, 68, is self-effacing even after saddling more than 6,700 winners, third all-time.
He doesn't talk up his horses much, not even Shared Belief.
"I stay pretty even keel all the time," Hollendorfer said. "People ask me if I ever get nervous, but I'd be nervous if I didn't have a horse in a big race."
Shared Belief showed his class by overcoming a ridiculously wide trip in his last race, the Awesome Again on Sept. 27 at Santa Anita. Like California Chrome in the Belmont, Shared Belief was a target, and jockey Victor Espinoza took dead aim, floating him 7 paths wide on the first turn.
It backfired, because Shared Belief surged late for Mike Smith to get up by a neck and Espinoza drew a suspension.
"He's done everything we've asked him to do and more," Hollendorfer said. "While respecting the other horses, we're going into the race with confidence."
Smith, another Hall of Famer, is No. 1 with 20 Breeders' Cup victories, including three Classics.
"He is extremely long and has great balance," Smith said of Shared Belief. "He is very unique in that he can adapt during a race, and that ability is really a huge plus."
Rome, who once described horse racing as a bet, not a sport, on his syndicated talk show, is as in love with racing as he is Shared Belief.
"I've been lucky," Rome said. "I've had more success than people who are smarter than me and spent a lot more money than me, but it wasn't overnight."
Rome said his original take on horse racing shouldn't be construed as disdain for it.
He was simply "pushing buttons," a specialty for a guy who still may be most famous for a decades-old confrontation with former NFL quarterback Jim Everett. After Rome repeatedly called him "Chris" -- in reference to women's tennis star Chris Evert -- on a live broadcast in 1994, Everett flipped over a table and knocked Rome out of his seat.
These days Rome hosts a syndicated radio show, a television show on CBS Sports Network and specials on Showtime. Guests and callers are entering "The Jungle," hence the name Jungle Racing, which he owns with wife Janet.
And, yes, Rome now thinks it's a sport. He just didn't know much about it before his first foray as an owner. But when his 15-1 long shot came back to win, he was hooked.
Rome said that before he got into horse racing he didn't understand "the highs were so high and the lows so low." He's had plenty of both with Shared Belief this year.
When the gelding appeared headed on the Triple Crown trail, Rome said he tried, unsuccessfully, from catching what is commonly known as "Derby Fever."
A hoof problem kept Shared Belief out of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
But when he won the Awesome Again Stakes to improve to 7-0, Shared Belief was back in contention for champion 3-year-old male honors and a shot at Horse of the Year.
Trainer Hollendorfer said Rome is a low-key partner.
"Jim just texts me every once in a while," Hollendorfer said.
For a few moments today, Rome will be the sports figure other commentators are analyzing.
"The whole thing just seems very surreal," Rome said. "Very, very bizarre."
Information for this article was contributed by Newsday and the Associated Press
Sports on 11/01/2014