Breeders' Cup Distaff swan song for Beholder

ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder has one final chapter to write in a storybook career that will end Nov. 4 at Santa Anita, where she will face undefeated 3-year-old filly Songbird for the first and last time in perhaps the most widely anticipated race of the 2016 Breeders’ Cup.

The $2 million Distaff will make history whether or not Beholder wins in the final start of her career. For the first time, a Distaff field will include three reigning champions – Songbird, 2-year-old filly; Beholder, older dirt female; and Stellar Wind, 3-year-old filly.

Nine were pre-entered in the Distaff, including Grade 1 winners Curalina, I’m a Chatterbox, and Forever Unbridled. Land Over Sea, a Grade 2 winner, and Corona Del Inca, a Group 1 winner from Argentina, also were pre-entered. Carina Mia was pre-entered but lists the Filly and Mare Sprint as her first preference. The Distaff is likely to have eight starters.

Songbird and Stellar Wind are scheduled to race in 2017, but owner B. Wayne Hughes confirmed this week the Distaff is the finale for 6-year-old Beholder, a three-time champion with 10 Grade 1 victories, a 17-for-25 record, and $5,056,600 in earnings.

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“We’re in tough and she’s in her last race,” Hughes said on Tuesday by phone from his Kentucky farm. “She’s done more than we could have ever expected. We hope to go out a winner at the end. It’s delightful.”

Songbird is the early Distaff betting favorite at 2-1, according to Daily Racing Form. But the sentimental favorite is Beholder, who has campaigned in California for five years. It seems strange to consider that the Distaff is her swan song.

“I try not to even think of it,” trainer Richard Mandella said early Wednesday morning. “I’m training her for the Breeders’ Cup, trying to win the Breeders’ Cup. I’m going to train her the same way I would.”

It has worked so far. Mandella has trained Beholder through a career that is one long highlight reel. At age 2, the sprint-built daughter of Henny Hughes stretched out and wired the 2012 BC Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita to clinch the 2-year-old filly championship, her first of three Eclipse Awards.

Beholder’s 3-year-old season was even better. Mandella occasionally referred to the temperamental filly as a “keg of dynamite,” but she grew, matured and picked up a new rider. Gary Stevens took over for Garrett Gomez in fall 2013. Stevens was instrumental in Beholder’s success, allowing her to stalk the pace rather than race to the lead. Stevens has been Beholder’s regular pilot for three years, riding her in 15 of her last 16 starts.

Beholder finished her 2013 campaign with a romping win in the BC Distaff at Santa Anita, which secured her 3-year-old filly championship. Her 4-year-old season was interrupted by injury and illness. She made three starts, winning two, including a Grade 1.

Last year at age 5, Beholder went 5 for 5 and produced the most explosive performance of her career. Facing colts and geldings in the 2105 Pacific Classic at Del Mar, Beholder blew open the race and won by 8 1/4 lengths with a 114 Beyer. She missed the Breeders’ Cup, but won a third championship, this time as older dirt female.

As a 6-year-old in 2016, Beholder launched her campaign with two wins, including the Vanity Mile, giving her a Grade 1 victory in five straight seasons. Beholder, however, will enter the Distaff on the longest losing streak of her career, three races. Beholder lost to Stellar Wind in the Clement Hirsch at Del Mar and the Zenyatta at Santa Anita, and to California Chrome in the Pacific Classic.

Beholder has a score to settle in the Distaff with Stellar Wind, and she will face a formidable new rival in undefeated Songbird. Hughes, an alumnus of the University of Southern California and ardent support of the USC football program, recalled a favorite expression that relates to the Distaff field.

“I think of Pete Carroll when he was the coach at SC,” Hughes said. “He said, ‘You can’t be a champion unless you beat champions.’ There are three champions in there. It’s going to be a champ to come out of there. We’re excited about it.”

Beholder will work once more, on Thursday morning, in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup.

There will be plenty of time for reflection after the Breeders’ Cup. In the meantime, Mandella admits Beholder has been special to him.

“It’s something we all dream about in this business that very few get to experience,” he said.

After the Breeders’ Cup, Beholder will become a broodmare at Hughes’s Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky.

“I plan on putting her here on the farm and getting her bred,” Hughes said.

No decision has been made on whom she will be bred to, but Spendthrift stallion Malibu Moon is under consideration.

- additional reporting by Steve Andersen