Beholder improves; may target Adoration

ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder, the two-time champion who was to miss Saturday’s $300,000 Vanity Stakes at Santa Anita because of a fever, might have a summer campaign in Southern California.

Trainer Richard Mandella said on Friday that Beholder’s health showed improvement Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, and that the 5-year-old mare no longer had a temperature of 102 degrees. He said plans for a start in the $1 million Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park on June 6 are questionable, and that Beholder might run in the $100,000 Adoration Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on June 13.

“Depending on how she is, there is still a small chance to go to New York, but she is more likely to start here for the Adoration so we don’t have to ship,” he said.

A start in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes would lead to the $300,000 Clement Hirsch Stakes, a Grade 1 for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles at Del Mar on Aug. 1.

Mandella said he was encouraged by Beholder’s improvement in the 24 hours since the temperature was first diagnosed early Thursday morning.

“It looks like it’s going to be a short deal, but I don’t want to jinx myself,” he said. “We have to be careful and make sure she doesn’t get really sick.”

Owned by B. Wayne Hughes, Beholder has won 11 of 16 starts and earned $3,416,600. She was the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012 and champion 3-year-old filly of 2013. This year, Beholder won her only start, the restricted Santa Lucia Stakes here April 10. Beholder won the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita but missed the 2014 running because of an illness.