Beholder might stick around for 2017 campaign

ARCADIA, Calif. – The Beholder retirement tour of 2016 may have to wait.

Owner B. Wayne Hughes said on Sunday that he is considering campaigning the three-time champion mare in 2017 as a 7-year-old. Hughes made the announcement in the winner’s circle after Beholder won her 2016 debut in the $100,345 Adoration Stakes at Santa Anita, her first start since September and her seventh consecutive win.

“If she has a good year this year, I’ll do it again next year,” Hughes said. “Why not? She’s having a good time. She’s really happy.”

Last August, Hughes announced that Beholder would not be retired at the end of 2015 and would stay in training for another year. On Sunday morning, Hughes and jockey Gary Stevens flew on a private plane from Kentucky to California and spent part of the trip talking about Beholder and their hopes for this year.

“He told me she’s bigger and better than she ever was before, so I asked him how he knows,” Hughes said. “He said, ‘By the girth. It’s bigger.’ So, why stop? I see no reason to stop.”

Such an idea would be fine with trainer Richard Mandella.

“She might be better than ever,” Mandella said Sunday as he left the winner’s circle.

Beholder was the easy winner of the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes at 1 1/16 miles, scoring by 2 1/4 lengths over Sheer Pleasure, a winner of three stakes for California-bred fillies and mares. The Adoration was a trial for Beholder in advance of the $400,000 Vanity Mile, a Grade 1 for fillies and mares June 4.

The field for the Vanity is likely to include Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015, and Taris, who won the $300,000 Humana Distaff Stakes at Churchill Downs on Saturday.

Stellar Wind worked five furlongs in 1:00 on Sunday. Trainer John Sadler timed her galloping out six furlongs in 1:13.

Owned by Pete and Kosta Hronis, Stellar Wind has not raced since finishing second to Stopchargingmaria in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland last October. Sadler said he’s been encouraged by Stellar Wind’s progress in recent months and has been aiming for the Vanity.

“I’d like to have the first race be here,” he said.

Taris won the sixth stakes of her career and her first Grade 1 in the Humana Distaff at seven furlongs. Trainer Simon Callaghan said the long-range goal for Taris is the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 5, with the Vanity likely to be her only start around two turns in the coming months.

“I think it would be the right thing to do to stretch her out,” he said. “It’s obvious that her best distance is seven-eighths, but a mile is a good distance, and it’s a Grade 1.”

Earlier this year at Santa Anita, Taris, 5, won the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes at 1 1/16 miles in January but was second in the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes at 1 1/8 miles in March.

Beholder has won 16 of 21 starts and earned $4,496,600 in her career. She has won three Eclipse Awards – as the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012, 3-year-old filly of 2013, and older mare of 2015. She clinched last year’s title with an emphatic victory by 8 1/4 lengths in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar last August, becoming the first female to win the track’s signature race in its 25th running.

The Adoration Stakes was Beholder’s first start since a win in the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes here last September. Beholder was scheduled to start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland last October but was withdrawn after she bled in a gallop. The BC Classic was won by American Pharoah, the winner of the 2015 Triple Crown.

While the Adoration and Vanity are for fillies and mares, Beholder will be campaigned against males in the second half of this year, with races such as the Pacific Classic on Aug. 20 and the BC Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 5 firmly in the plans.

Hughes is rooting for Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist to sweep the Triple Crown and set up an epic showdown with Beholder in the BC Classic.

“Not only am I still thinking about going up against the boys, but I want Nyquist to be the Triple Crown winner,” he said. “Because we got sick last year, it’s very important to be able to take a shot at a Triple Crown winner. I think it would be amazing.”