Beholder set for Grade 1 campaign after Santa Lucia triumph

ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder, the two-time champion, will have a campaign of Grade 1 races on opposite coasts for the remainder of the spring after winning her 2015 debut in the $80,500 Santa Lucia Stakes at Santa Anita on Friday.

Trainer Richard Mandella has plans to run Beholder in the $300,000 Vanity Stakes here on May 9 and the $1 million Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park on June 6.

He described her condition Saturday morning as “dead fit.”

In the Santa Lucia, restricted to fillies and mares who had not won a graded stakes at a mile or farther this year, Beholder ($2.60) had an ideal trip. Ridden by Gary Stevens, Beholder stalked the pacesetter Uzziel to the turn and took the lead in early stretch en route to a win by 3 3/4 lengths over Uzziel. She earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 98.

“It couldn’t have been more perfect,” Mandella said of the performance. “She did it easy and was fast enough. I would have been disappointed if she had gotten beat by those fillies.”

Owned by B. Wayne Hughes, Beholder was the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012 and champion 3-year-old filly of 2013. By Henny Hughes, the 5-year-old Beholder has won 11 of 16 starts and earned $3,416,600.

The Santa Lucia was Beholder’s first start since a win in the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes here last September. She missed a scheduled start in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff here last October because of illness.