Warren's Veneda, Beholder likely to meet in Adoration

ARCADIA, Calif. – Warren’s Veneda is likely to start against the two-time champion Beholder in Saturday’s $100,000 Adoration Stakes at Santa Anita, a race not expected to include the recent Grade 1 winner My Sweet Addiction, their trainers said Sunday.

Warren’s Veneda, the winner of three consecutive stakes earlier this year, was third behind My Sweet Addiction in the $294,000 Vanity Stakes on May 9. Beholder missed that race because of illness.

On Sunday, trainer Marty Jones said My Sweet Addiction is a candidate for Saturday’s $200,000 Fleur de Lis Handicap for fillies and mares at Churchill Downs.

“Right now, we’re leaning that way,” Jones said.

Warren’s Veneda worked five furlongs in 58.60 seconds Saturday, her last major exercise before the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes, which is run at 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares.

“She worked very well,” trainer Craig Lewis said. “We’re probably leaning toward running. I don’t think it’s an ideal situation.”

Lewis said he has a reluctance to challenge Beholder, who won her only start this year in the restricted Santa Lucia Stakes in April.

Beholder was the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012 and 3-year-old filly of 2013. Beholder is trained by Richard Mandella, who said he also plans to start the longshot Gusto Dolce, who was sixth in an optional claimer in her American debut Feb. 20, her last start. A 6-year-old Uruguayan-bred, Gusto Dolce was a Group 2 winner in Brazil in 2013 but is winless in her last three starts. She was an allowance race winner in France last September.

“I don’t think she’ll scare anyone off,” Mandella said. “I’ll put her in there and try to get her black type.”

Mandella will have the favorite in Saturday’s $400,000 Shoemaker Mile on turf with Bal a Bali, the winner of the Grade 3 American Stakes on May 9 in his American debut. Bal a Bali, 5, has won 12 of 13 starts, with nearly all of the wins in Brazil in 2013 and 2014. Bal a Bali won the Rio Triple Crown in 2014.

The winner of the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile will earn a fees-paid berth for the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland on Oct. 31 if nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program.

On Sunday, Bal a Bali worked a half-mile in 46.60 seconds, the fastest of 85 recorded works at the distance. Bal a Bali is part of a potential field that includes Midnight Storm, who won the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby last August, as well as Talco and Winning Prize, second and fourth, respectively, in the American Stakes.