Beholder's training towards 2015 will begin soon

Beholder, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012 and 3-year-old filly of 2013, is a notable absentee from Saturday’s $200,000 Bayakoa Stakes at Los Alamitos. It will not be long before she is back in trainer Richard Mandella’s Santa Anita stable.

Mandella said last weekend that Beholder is two weeks away from being sent to a layup facility operated by Julie Adair-Stack to begin early training for a comeback. She is likely to spend a few weeks there before being sent to Santa Anita.

Owned by B. Wayne Hughes, Beholder missed the BC Distaff after becoming ill in late October. She was scheduled to be sold at auction in Kentucky in early November, but Hughes opted to keep her in training for a 5-year-old season in 2015. Beholder has won 10 of 15 starts and earned $3,368,300. She won the BC Juvenile Fillies in 2012 and the BC Distaff in 2013.

Mandella said a similar training plan is likely for Moulin de Mougin, who won the Grade 2 John Mabee Stakes at Del Mar in August but fell when she clipped heels in the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes at Santa Anita on Sept. 27.