Vale Dori to face the big girls in Beholder Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. – For five months, Vale Dori has essentially had the California older-female division to herself, reeling of five consecutive graded stakes wins.

She is about to get company in the division – world-class company.

Vale Dori won the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes at Santa Anita on Sunday, a prep for the Grade 1 Beholder Mile on June 3, the top race for females of the spring-summer meeting. The $400,000 Beholder Mile is shaping up as the nation’s top race for fillies and mares of the first half of the year.

Aside from Vale Dori, the field is expected to include two champions – Songbird and Stellar Wind.

Songbird, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2015 and champion 3-year-old filly of 2016, has not started since finishing second to Beholder in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff last November. Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015, won the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park last month in her first start since a fourth in the BC Distaff.

Vale Dori was third to Stellar Wind and Beholder in the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes last October. She has not lost in her six races since, including the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes on March 18.

In the Adoration, Vale Dori won by a half-length over Skye Diamonds, the winner of the Dream of Summer Stakes for California-bred fillies and mares on March 26.

As Vale Dori’s trainer, Bob Baffert, left the winner’s circle, he said, “This will set her up.”

Vale Dori has won 9 of 14 starts and earned $994,943 for owner Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al-Maktoum of Dubai. A 5-year-old Argentine-bred mare by Asiatic Boy, Vale Dori began her career in Argentina and raced in Dubai before joining Baffert’s stable at this time last year.

“She’s been a lot of fun,” Baffert said. “When she got here, she was kind of flighty. She’s getting better.”