Stellar Wind has solid Beholder Mile workout
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
ARCADIA, Calif. – Stellar Wind, the winner of the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap last month in her first start of 2017, worked five furlongs in 1:00.40 on Friday in preparation for what could be a red-hot running of the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita on June 3.
Stellar Wind worked in company with stablemate Pappou, who was timed in 1:00.80.
“She broke off two lengths behind her company and kind of breezed past,” trainer John Sadler said. “It was very, very smooth. We’re right on target.”
The $400,000 Beholder Mile is expected to include Songbird, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2016; Vale Dori, who has won five consecutive graded stakes; and possibly Finest City, the champion female sprinter of 2016.
Owned by Pete and Kosta Hronis, Stellar Wind was the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015. In 2016, she won 2 of 4 starts, beating Beholder in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar in July and the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes here in October. Stellar Wind was fourth to Beholder in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff after a poor start last November.
Last June, Beholder and Stellar Wind were first and second in the Grade 1 Vanity Mile. The Vanity Mile has since been renamed the Beholder Mile.
In the Apple Blossom at 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn Park, Stellar Wind won by 1 1/4 lengths at 2-5.
◗ Apprentice jockey Laura Werner will ride her first race in California aboard Heartofthetemple in Sunday’s sixth race, for $25,000 claimers at a mile on turf. Werner, a 21-year-old native of England, won four races in New Zealand and has a 10-pound claim. Werner has worked in recent months as an exercise rider at Santa Anita.
