Finest City, Stellar Wind, Vale Dori may meet in Beholder Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. – Three major stakes-winning mares – Finest City, Stellar Wind, and Vale Dori – worked at Santa Anita on Friday and could all meet in the $400,000 Beholder Mile on June 3.

Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015, worked five furlongs in 1:00.60 for the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park on April 14. Stellar Wind was second to the champion Beholder in the 2016 Vanity Mile, a race that has since been renamed the Beholder Mile. Stellar Wind has not raced since finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff here last November.

Trainer John Sadler said Friday he is confident Stellar Wind will be ready for her first start of the year in the Apple Blossom.

“She’s just a really nice horse,” he said.

Vale Dori and Finest City were first and second in the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on March 18, the fourth consecutive graded stakes win for Vale Dori. Trained by Bob Baffert, Vale Dori worked a half-mile in 49 seconds Friday.

Baffert said the Beholder Mile will be the late-spring focus for Vale Dori.

Finest City, the champion female sprinter of 2016, worked a half-mile in 49 seconds, which trainer Ian Kruljac described as a “nice, easy half.”

Kruljac said he was leaning toward the Beholder Mile for Finest City’s next start but has not ruled out a start in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf here May 27.

“We’ll probably stay here and look at the Beholder Mile,” Kruljac said. “She’s healthy and doing well.”

A previous version of this story misstated the time of Stellar Wind's Thursday workout. It was five furlongs in 1:00.60, not 49 seconds.