Paradise Woods eyes Adoration Stakes, Beholder Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. – Paradise Woods, a two-time Grade 1 winner, emerged from her fourth in the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes at Santa Anita last Saturday with a sore foot, trainer Richard Mandella said.

Mandella said Paradise Woods will be pointed for the Grade 1 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares on June 2, with a possible start in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on May 6.

Paradise Woods was beaten 6 1/2 lengths by Selcourt in the Santa Monica Stakes at seven furlongs. Sent off as the 4-5 favorite, Paradise Woods was near the pace for the first half-mile before fading.

“She has tender feet,” Mandella said. “Training her in the mud and on a sealed track showed after the race. That’s not complaining. There’s not much we can do about it.”

Paradise Woods had her first start of 2018 in the Santa Monica. She was second to the Unique Bella in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs on Dec. 26, opening day of the meeting. Unique Bella was the champion female sprinter of 2017.

In 2017, Paradise Woods won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks in April and the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes in September before finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar in November. The Beholder Mile could be Paradise Woods’s first start around two turns since the BC Distaff at 1 1/8 miles.

“The Beholder Mile looks good,” Mandella said.

Mandella said he is reluctant to race Paradise Woods away from California.

“She won’t be moving around,” Mandella said. “I want to get her back on her game.”

Owned by Marty and Pam Wygod and Steve Sarkowsky, Paradise Woods has won 3 of 9 starts and earned $725,545.

Mandella said that Bendable, the winner of the Grade 3 Desert Stormer Stakes last year, has been retired and will be flown to Kentucky this weekend. Bendable will be bred this spring.

Owned by Claiborne Farms, Bendable, a 5-year-old mare by Horse Greeley, won 4 of 10 starts and earned $256,845 in a three-year career. Bendable was last of 10 in the Mizdirection Stakes on the hillside turf course last Sunday.

Bendable won the 2016 Beverly Lewis Stakes at Los Alamitos and the Desert Stormer Stakes last June. Earlier this year, Bendable was second in the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes on the hillside turf course.