Breeders' Cup Distaff: Beholder will race as 4-year-old in 2014

ARCADIA, Calif. - Beholder, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012 who won the biggest race of her career in Friday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff, will stay in training in 2014, trainer Richard Mandella said on Sunday.

Owned by B. Wayne Hughes, Beholder is a leading contender for champion 3-year-old filly of 2013 following her win in the BC Distaff against top mare Royal Delta and the 3-year-old Princess of Sylmar, a winner of four Grade 1 races in Kentucky and New York earlier this year.

Beholder won three Grade 1 races this year prior to Friday’s BC Distaff.

Mandella said on Sunday that the BC Distaff at Santa Anita on Oct. 31, 2014 will be a long-term goal. Beholder, who has won 8 of 12 starts and earned $3,075,000, will undergo precautionary physical tests in coming weeks.

“We’ll give her a physical,” Mandella said. “We’ll run her through a scan and make sure we don’t find something we don’t know about it.”

In the first half of 2014, Beholder will start the season at Santa Anita’s marathon winter-spring meeting. Mandella said she could be sent to Belmont Park for a late spring or early summer Grade 1 race for fillies and mares.

“I’m not sure I’d like to take her too many places,” Mandella said. “We’ll give her a break and point her for the spring time. We could go to Belmont for one of those races.”

Mandella said he is reluctant to ship Beholder because she can sometimes show erratic behavior.

“She’s a sweetheart 95 percent of the time, but the other five percent you pay for it,” Mandella said.

Last May, Beholder became upset before the Kentucky Oaks. She led in the stretch of the Kentucky Oaks but finished second to Princess of Sylmar.

Mandella gave Beholder a break after the Kentucky Oaks. She has not lost since, winning the minor Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar on Sept. 1 in her comeback. Mandella said he was left impressed by Beholder’s win in the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes here on Sept. 28, her first start against older fillies and mares, and by her win in the BC Distaff.

“I thought she’d win but not gallop away from them,” Mandella said of the Zenyatta. “Damn, if she didn’t do it again.”

By Henny Hughes, Beholder won the BC Distaff by 4 1/4 lengths over Close Hatches. Royal Delta was fourth, with Princess of Sylmar last of six.