Beholder's next race likely to come in spring 2015

ARCADIA, Calif. – The 2015 campaign for Beholder is likely to begin in spring, trainer Richard Mandella said Sunday morning, a day after Spendthrift Farms announced the two-time champion had been withdrawn from an autumn sale and would race at age 5.

Beholder spiked a fever one week ago and did not pre-enter the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Her future was unclear until late Saturday when B. Wayne Hughes’ Spendthrift Farm announced Beholder had been withdrawn from the Fasig-Tipton November sale and would stay in training. Mandella was thrilled.

“I have a new horse for next year,” he said.

Of course, Beholder is hardly new. The 4-year-old filly has won 10 of 15, including two Breeders’ Cup races, but the point was well taken.

“When one like that is gone, coming back is like new,” Mandella said.

Beholder will spend another week at Santa Anita before she is turned out.

“We’re going to put her out for a month, and then we’ll X-ray her lungs to see how they look,” Mandella said. “They did show inflammation. No fluid in the lung, just inflamed.”

Mandella said Beholder was “trying to get pneumonia.” Shipping to a Kentucky sale would have been risky.

“We were afraid to move her to the sale because it could tip it back the other way,” he said. “Once that was over, it was … let’s just go ahead run her next year.”

Beholder, winner of the 2012 BC Juvenile Fillies and 2013 BC Distaff, is tentatively scheduled to return in early 2015.

“I would think spring, around March, but nothing definitive,” Mandella said. “It’s all going to be up to her.”

Mandella and Hughes had preliminary discussions regarding a race in Dubai in late March. That option probably is off the table.

“It’s a little sketchy whether she could be ready for that kind of deal that quick,” Mandella said.

The main objective for 2015 is one year away. Her comeback target will not be determined until spring.

“The big thing now is going to be the Breeders’ Cup,” Mandella said. “We’ve got the whole year.”

The 2015 Breeders’ Cup will be held at Keeneland on Oct. 30-31.

Beholder has won 10 races and $3,368,300 from 15 starts.