Beholder returns a winner in Santa Lucia

Beholder was picture perfect in her return win on Friday at Santa Anita Park (Benoit Photos)

Dual champion Beholder (Henny Hughes), winner of the 2013 Breeders’ Cup
Distaff (G1), was unable to defend her title in that race last year after
spiking a fever in the days leading up to the contest. She was scheduled to
go through the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November Sale right after the Breeders’
Cup, but developed inflammation in her lungs and was also withdrawn from the
auction to continue her recuperation in California.

On Friday the bay mare proved she was back to her old self when schooling
four rivals in the $80,500
Santa
Lucia S. at Santa Anita Park. Spendthrift Farm LLC’s colorbearer stalked
just outside of pacesetter Uzziel (Harlington) through splits of :24 1/5, :47
4/5 and 1:11 4/5, tugging all the while on jockey Gary Stevens. She moved up to
race in tandem with Uzziel rounding the turn before drawing off in the stretch
to be 3 3/4 lengths clear on the wire.

“She met and
exceeded my expectations today,” owner B. Wayne Hughes said. “She’s a nice horse and I’m very lucky to own
her. We hope we have better luck than we did last year. I could easily be wrong
but she’s the best filly in the world.”

“She couldn’t look better, I don’t think,” trainer Richard Mandella remarked.
“You never know until you run them. Believe me, I’m
nervous. I worry all the time. Just because you’re good doesn’t mean it’s going
to happen. Mr. Hughes has a saying. ‘Stuff happens.’ It’s a relief to get
through this and she’s back.”

Beholder appears to have a big year ahead of her (Benoit Photos)

“I know the Breeders’
Cup is the goal and however he works backwards to get us to that point, I’ll
just be along for the ride. Hopefully, we can both stay healthy.

“Winning Colors, Silverbulletday, this mare, they all have
a temperament and they’re their own woman. I just try to get along with them,”
the Hall of Fame rider added.
“She listens to me and she acts like she enjoys me on her back and I’m darn sure
I enjoy being there.”

Beholder improved her career record to 16-11-3-0 and has accumulated
$3,416,600 in lifetime earnings. Included in those numbers are two Breeders’ Cup
victories in the Distaff (G1) and Juvenile Fillies (G1), back-to-back tallies of
the Zenyatta S. (G1), and wins in the Santa Anita Oaks (G1) and Las Virgenes S.
(G1).

The five-year-old bay has competed outside of California just twice in her
career — shipping to Churchill Downs for a half-length second in the Kentucky
Oaks (G1) and to New York for a very close fourth-placing in Belmont Park’s
Ogden Phipps S. (G1) — but is expected to travel some more in the future.

“The ($300,000) Vanity S. ([G2] at Santa Anita) on May 9 is next and then the
($1 million) Ogden Phipps on
Belmont Day (June 6) and we’re going to get it right this time,” Mandella said.

Bred in Kentucky by Clarkland Farm, Beholder sold for $180,000 Keeneland
September yearling. She is out of stakes heroine Leslie’s Lady (Tricky Creek),
making her a half-sister to Grade 1-scoring top sire Into Mischief. This is the
same female family as yet another Grade 1-winning stallion in Roanoke (Pleasant
Colony).