Female champion Beholder making steady progress

ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder, the three-time champion, is making steady progress in daily gallops toward her first workout of the year.

Trainer Richard Mandella said on Friday that Beholder returned to training in recent weeks “bigger and stronger.” Owned by B. Wayne Hughes, Beholder, 6, was the champion older female of 2015.

Beholder has won 15 of 20 starts and earned $4,436,600. She missed the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland last October after she was found to have irritation in her lungs and blood in her trachea following a gallop. Following a rest in Kentucky last fall, Beholder rejoined Mandella’s stable last month.

“She’s looks great,” he said. “I don’t think she’s ever looked so good. She’ll be galloping for a few weeks.”

Mandella said the Vanity Handicap at Santa Anita in late spring is a first goal for Beholder, who beat males in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar last August.