Beholder will make comeback in Santa Lucia

ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder, the two-time champion, will have her first start since September in Friday’s $75,000 Santa Lucia Stakes at Santa Anita.
On Sunday, Beholder was supplemented to the Santa Lucia Stakes for $1,500 by trainer Richard Mandella, the second consecutive year in which he supplemented Beholder to the same restricted stakes for fillies and mares.

Beholder has not raced since winning the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes here last September. She missed a scheduled start in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff last October because of illness. Beholder was scheduled to be sold at a sale in Kentucky last November, but owner B. Wayne Hughes reversed the decision in the days before the sale and opted to keep the mare in training this year.

Beholder has been progressing toward a comeback in recent weeks, with three six-furlong workouts in late March and a seven-furlong workout April 2.

The Santa Lucia, run at 1 1/16 miles, is restricted to fillies and mares who have not won a graded stakes in 2015.

From the rail, the field includes Backintheacademy, Tiz Midnight, Melanistic, Uzziel, Gusto Dolce, Beholder, Oscar Party, and Sky Mega. Beholder and Oscar Party were supplemented. Gary Stevens is booked to ride Beholder.

Tiz Midnight figures to be the toughest opponent for Beholder. Trained by Bob Baffert, Tiz Midnight won the Grade 2 Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos last December and was second to Beholder in the Zenyatta Stakes last year. This year, Tiz Midnight has started once, finishing sixth of seven in the minor Paseana Stakes in January.

Beholder was the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012 and champion 3-year-old filly of 2013. In 2014, she won the Santa Lucia Stakes in her first start and was fourth in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park in June, suffering a cut on her leg that kept her away from racing until the Zenyatta.

By Henny Hughes, Beholder has won 10 of 15 starts and earned $3,368,300.