Beholder's legend continues to grow
ARCADIA, Calif.- Beholder has a prominent place in trainer Richard Mandella’s stable at Santa Anita.
Her stall is adjacent to his office, so close that if Mandella leans to his left while seated at his desk there is a chance Beholder will be staring right back at him. Sunday morning, Mandella could easily see Beholder, especially after she mowed through her hay rack at a rapid pace.
The previous day, Beholder won the 10th Grade 1 race of her career in the $400,000 Vanity Mile at Santa Anita. The three-time champion showed no sign of weariness on Sunday after beating a field that included Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015.
Beholder has won 17 of 22 starts and $4,736,600 for owner B. Wayne Hughes. The Vanity Mile was her eighth consecutive stakes win, a streak that began in September 2014 and includes the $1 million Pacific Classic against males at Del Mar last August.
The magnitude of those accomplishments is not lost on Mandella. But he admits the totality of Beholder’s career will be best admired in time.
“These kind of things grow slowly on me,” he said. “In this game, you train yourself to not overreact to bad news, and focus on the triumphs because the other side is coming.
“Things do grow as time goes by. By the time I get in my wheelchair, the stories will be very big.”
Mandella will not have to embellish the tale of Beholder’s career too much. Beholder was the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012, the year she won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. A year later, she was recognized as champion 3-year-old filly, a season that ended with a win in the BC Distaff. Last year, the win in the Pacific Classic was enough to clinch the title of champion older mare.
A 6-year-old, Beholder has had her share of setbacks. She was taken out of training in October 2014 because of a case of pneumonia, costing her a start in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Last October, she missed the BC Classic against males after bleeding in a gallop in the days before the race at Keeneland.
Though disappointments at the time, those missed opportunities may have had their benefits. She had more than six months between starts after the 2014 season, and seven months before the start of this season. Those breaks have helped her to maintain soundness, Mandella said.
“She’s had time to back off to huge effect,” Mandella said. “She can get rested in a normal matter and get stronger and stronger each year. Some of it has been by design, and some of it on her own.”
This year, the campaign is once again geared toward the Breeders’ Cup races at Santa Anita on Nov. 4-5. Beholder’s season is expected to consist entirely of races in California. She began the year with a cozy win in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes here on May 8.
The Vanity was the main goal for the spring, leading to two scheduled starts at the Del Mar summer meeting – the $300,000 Clement Hirsch Stakes against fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on July 30 and the $ 1 million Pacific Classic on 1 1/4 miles on Aug. 20.
“That would be ideal,” Mandella said. “It’s all up to her.”
Last August, Beholder won her first start at 1 1/4 miles in the Pacific Classic by 8 1/4 lengths as the 2-1 favorite. The victory greatly enhanced her popularity. This year, the Pacific Classic may include California Chrome, who has returned to training in the last month following his win in the $10 million Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates on March 26.
A matchup between Beholder and California Chrome is fine with Mandella.
“If she’s in the shape she was in last year around the exact time, we look forward to it,” Mandella said.
That would be a dream matchup of the two most popular older horses in training, and is not that far off.