Stellar Wind, Beholder set to battle again in Clement L. Hirsch Stakes

DEL MAR, Calif. – Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015, is not having an easy time this summer.

Stellar Wind made her first start of the year in the Grade 1 Vanity Mile at Santa Anita on June 4 and finished a game second to Beholder, the three-time champion. Beholder was not fully extended when she won that race by 1 1/2 lengths.

For her second start of 2016, Stellar Wind must face the same rival in Saturday’s $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar. A win by Stellar Wind would be a major upset; Beholder, the champion older female of 2015, has won her last eight starts.

The Grade 1 Hirsch Stakes is run at 1 1/16 miles and is the championship race for older fillies and mares at the Del Mar summer meeting. The race is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth to the BC Distaff at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.

Stellar Wind is trained by John Sadler for Pete and Kosta Hronis. Sadler tried to duck Beholder in the Hirsch Stakes and travel to Delaware Park for the Delaware Park Handicap earlier this month. Those plans were thwarted by difficult travel arrangements.

“We found the travel impossible,” Sadler said. “There was nothing I felt good about. We run locally, and here we are.”

Sadler knows that a win by Stellar Wind would be a shock and a career-defining race for his 4-year-old filly. Realistically, Sadler considers the Hirsch as part of a greater plan to have Stellar Wind ready for the BC Distaff.

“It’s the second race of a campaign,” Sadler said. “She hasn’t missed a beat. She’s been very nice.”

The Hirsch will be Stellar Wind’s first start at Del Mar since a win in the Grade 3 Torrey Pines Stakes for 3-year-old fillies last August. She was later second in the BC Distaff at Keeneland last October.

The Hirsch is expected to have a field of five, including Divina Comedia, Off the Road, and The Dream.

Divina Comedia was last of five in the Vanity Mile and won the minor Southern Truce Stakes at Santa Anita on July 3.

Off the Road is trained by Richard Mandella, who also starts Beholder. Off the Road was a Group 1 winner in Brazil in 2014 but is winless in five starts in the United States.

The Dream, trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, won two Group 1 races in Chile in 2015 and will make her American debut in the Hirsch.