Stellar Wind stays on course for Breeders' Cup Distaff

ARCADIA, Calif. – One day it’s Beholder and Songbird, the next day Stellar Wind. So it goes these days at Santa Anita, as the three locally based Eclipse Award winners continue their preparations for what is shaping up as an epic showdown in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff here on Nov. 4.

Beholder and Songbird both had works Thursday. On Friday, on an inky morning with the darkness mixed with fog, Stellar Wind took to the track for a half-mile drill in 48.40 seconds under exercise rider Jose Contreras.

Trainer John Sadler said Friday’s work would be the first of three for Stellar Wind between the Zenyatta Stakes, which she won Oct. 1, and the Distaff.

“Just wanted to get her into a routine,” Sadler said. “Obviously, we’re right where we’re supposed to be. It’s nice. There’s been no glitches. Everything’s gone to plan.”

Indeed, the 2016 campaign mapped out by Sadler and owners Kosta and Pete Hronis has been ideal. They wanted to point for the second half of the year, with the Distaff as the focal point. Stellar Wind was second in last year’s Distaff at Keeneland in her final start of 2015 and did not race this year until June, when she was second to Beholder in the Vanity Mile. Since then, she has defeated Beholder in both the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar and then the Zenyatta here.

“It’s been exactly like we wanted, unless we’d have beaten Beholder three times,” Sadler said. “We’re very, very happy. We’re going into the Distaff with a relatively fresh horse.

“We got the Eclipse Award last year, but I always thought she could be even better at 4, and she’s proved me right.”

Stellar Wind was last year’s champion 3-year-old filly. Songbird was last year’s champion 2-year-old filly. Beholder is the reigning champion older dirt female. If all three run in the Distaff, it will be the first time three current champions have been in the same Breeders’ Cup race.

Stellar Wind, a daughter of Curlin, is entered in the November breeding stock sale, but Sadler said that’s “like flight insurance” in case something unforeseen happens. Assuming all is well with Stellar Wind after the Distaff, Sadler said, “the plan right now is to race next year.”