Beholder not fully cranked for return in Adoration
ARCADIA, Calif. – One year older and wiser, Beholder is back for a 6-year-old campaign that is expected to begin with one more win.
Beholder will be strongly favored Sunday at Santa Anita, where she returns from a seven-month layoff in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes. Her trainer, Richard Mandella, cautions that the $100,000 race is only a starting point for the megastar mare.
“In this game, the easiest things are sometimes the hardest,” Mandella said. “There are no locks in racing. I don’t think I have her cranked up for the race of her life.”
That won’t be necessary. Beholder outclasses the field in the Adoration, a 1 1/16-mile route that is race 5, post time 2:30 p.m. Pacific. Based on how she looks and trains, Beholder should pick up where she left off in 2015. She went 5 for 5 a year ago, highlighted by a dazzling victory in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic.
Even if Beholder is not cranked up, exercise rider Janeen Painter said the mare’s action feels similar to last summer at Del Mar.
“She feels like she did when she went into the Pacific Classic, and that was a whole different feeling than she’s ever given me,” Painter said.
Beholder has won 15 races, including nine Grade 1s, and earned $4,436,600 from 20 starts for owner B. Wayne Hughes. With age comes maturity, as Beholder’s exercise rider has experienced firsthand.
“When she was young, it was her way or the highway,” Painter said. “As she gets older, it’s easier and easier.”
In the final major workout, one mile on April 29, Beholder and Painter were in complete harmony.
“She was so kind, and she was just waiting for me,” Painter said. “At the three, she was like – ‘Are we going to go now?’ – ‘No, we’re going to wait a little bit.’ That’s the big change in her … she’s so willing to do what you want to do.”
Mandella agrees that Beholder has become wiser.
“She’s older, and she’s getting a little smarter,” he said. “Maybe we’re getting smarter and learning how to work with her a little better.”
Though reluctant to discuss future races until after Beholder runs on Sunday, Mandella suggested that Beholder’s 2016 campaign likely will be similar to 2015. One difference is that the Breeders’ Cup this year is in Beholder’s backyard at Santa Anita, where she has won 11 of 12 starts, including the 2012 BC Juvenile Fillies and 2013 BC Distaff.
The BC Classic at Keeneland was on Beholder’s itinerary last fall. But she came down with a fever after shipping to Kentucky and then scratched after she bled in a morning gallop. This year on the comeback trail, Beholder has given Mandella every indication that she is as good as she was when she left.
“She looks as good as ever; she’s fit and ready to go,” Mandella said. “I just want the public to know there’s no way to guarantee anything. But we’re very excited to have her back. Everything is possible. We’ll take it one step at a time.”
Beholder and jockey Gary Stevens break from post 6 in the six-horse Adoration, a race conspicuously short on speed. Beholder could dictate the tempo or press a slow pace from the outside.
Sheer Pleasure is the likely second betting choice, up in class after a half-length win in a stakes for California-bred fillies and mares. Phil D’Amato trains the filly, whose 4-for-11 record includes three wins against statebreds. Martin Garcia is her rider.
Moyo Honey has won 3 of 7; her only subpar races were two starts in Grade 1s and another on turf. Paddy Gallagher trains the filly, whose rider is Drayden Van Dyke.
All Star Bub, Backintheacademy, and She’s Reddy complete the field.
Assuming that Beholder stays home for her next start following the Adoration, the competition will be stronger. The Grade 1 Vanity, a one-mile race June 4 at Santa Anita, is expected to mark the seasonal debut of 2015 champion 3-year-old filly Stellar Wind.