Beholder made Mandella to ponder over Breeders’ Cup chance
Second time maiden breaker, 2-year-old filly, Beholder, in her most recent outing at Santa Anita Park annihilated a first condition allowance race field by a massive margin of 11 lengths that has forced her Hall of Fame trainer, Richard Mandella, to think about the Breeders’ Cup next month.
The Spendthrift owned juvenile filly has two options going into the Breeders’ Cup according to her trainer. She could either end up running in the $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint which is an all male affair or she could go for much bigger distance and against a much competitive field in the Grade 1, $1 million Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, as both these races are held on 2 November at Santa Anita.
The Kentucky bred filly by Henny Hughes, Beholder was aboard jockey Garrett Gomez in the allowance race, who has ridden her in all of her four starts, downed the 6 furlong sprint in 1 minute and 9 seconds flat, which also turned out to be the fastest run since the autumn meet started.
"Depending on how she acts next week, we'll make a decision," said Mandella. "She cruised along so easy today it's just amazing. Garrett said he felt like he could do whatever he wanted to with her, so we'll wait and see."
The allowance race at Santa Anita Park was the first time, Beholder ran on dirt, and prior to her emphatic win she finished second to Executiveprivilege by the narrowest of margins in the seven furlong long Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante Stakes on 1 September, 2012.
"She's a really talented filly," said Gomez. "My biggest concern today was keeping her relaxed. She kind of got away from me the other day at Del Mar, but today she settled into a nice stride and she ran a really good race for me.
"When I came back (to the winner's circle) I wanted to see the time. When I saw 44 (half mile time) and 1:09 flat--that's a top filly."
Out of Tricky Creek’s mare Leslie’s Lady, Beholder broke her maiden at second attempt at Del Mar going 5 ½ furlongs.
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