Spendthrift Farm's champion Beholder (Henny Hughes), last seen winning the GI Zenyatta S. last September, returned to the races Sunday with a supremely easy victory in the GIII Adoration S. at Santa Anita. Sent off the prohibitive 1-9 favorite, the
6-year-old mare was winning her seventh straight race in her second Adoration score. Beholder's 2015 campaign included scintillating victories in the GI Clement Hirsch and against the boys in the GI Pacific Classic, but an expected match-up with Triple Crown hero American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) was derailed when the champion mare was sidelined by illness just days before the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Owner B. Wayne Hughes is still hoping his mare will get a chance to face a Triple Crown winner. “Not only am I still thinking about going up against the boys, but I want Nyquist to be the Triple Crown winner,” Hughes said. “Because we got sick last year, it's very important to us to be able to take a shot at a Triple Crown winner. I think it would be amazing.”
Breaking from the outside in the field of six, Beholder was caught four wide into the turn, but was taken in hand and settled one off the rail while chasing the pace through an opening quarter in :24.01. The bay mare pulled her way to challenge for the lead midway down the backstretch through a half-mile in :48.25. She inhaled pacesetting Sheer Pleasure on the turn and quickly opened up a clear advantage under a motionless Gary Stevens before striding under the wire well in hand.
“She left there sweet like she always does,” Stevens said. “She went over super, super quiet today. I had to let her do a little something the last sixteenth because she wanted to. She had fun, I had fun.
“Being off as long as she has is a tribute to Richard [Mandella] and Mr. Hughes showing that kind of patience,” Stevens continued. “The sky's the limit for her. She didn't take so much as a deep breath when I pulled her up. She's a very happy mare.”
Asked what would be next for his star mare, Mandella said, “The [June 4 GI] Vanity looks like the next step. I couldn't be happier with the way she's come back at six years old. I'm proud of Mr. Hughes for letting me have her back [to train].”
Beholder has been forced out of the last two Breeders' Cups due to illness and Hughes is looking forward to the championships behind held at Santa Anita in 2016.
“It's a very nice feeling knowing she can train and run up to the Breeders' Cup here at home,” Hughes said. “She doesn't do well traveling. Neither do I though, at 82, so we have that in common.”
Leslie's Lady, also the dam of Grade I-winning sire Into Mischief, produced a Scat Daddy colt in 2015. The mare's 13-year-old daughter, Judy B (Marquetry), in foal to Super Saver, sold to Tim Hyde's Summerhill Farm, breeder of GI Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist (Uncle Mo), for $225,000 at this year's Keeneland January sale.
Sunday, Santa Anita Park
ADORATION S.-GIII, $100,345, SA, 5-8, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/16m, 1:42.73, ft.
1–BEHOLDER, 124, m, 6, by Henny Hughes
1st Dam: Leslie's Lady (SW, $187,014), by Tricky Creek
2nd Dam: Crystal Lady, by Stop the Music
3rd Dam: One Last Bird, by One for All
($180,000 Ylg '11 KEESEP). O-Spendthrift Farm LLC;
B-Clarkland Farm (KY); T-Richard E. Mandella; J-Gary L.
Stevens. $60,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. 2yo & 3yo Filly, Ch.
Older Mare, MGISW, 21-16-3-0, $4,496,600.
*1/2 to Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday), GISW, $597,080.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick
Rating: A.
[bullet ad=”kings-equine-beholder-bullet”][bullet ad=”clarkland-beholder-bullet”][bullet ad=”kbif-g2g3″]2–Sheer Pleasure, 120, f, 4, Birdonthewire–Kathryns Birthday,
by Blare of Trumpets. O-Little Red Feather Racing & R/M
Racing; B-Madera Thoroughbreds LLC (CA); T-Philip D'Amato.
$20,000.
3–All Star Bub, 120, f, 4, Midshipman">Midshipman–High Style, by Giant's
Causeway. ($10,000 Ylg '13 KEEJAN; $45,000 Ylg '13 OBSAUG;
$35,000 RNA Ylg '13 ARZNOV; $37,000 RNA 2yo '14 BARJAN;
$65,000 2yo '14 BARMAY). O-Gatto Racing, LLC, Gillian
S. Campbell & Jerry Hollendorfer; B-Sun Valley Farm (KY);
T-Jerry Hollendorfer. $12,000.
[bullet ad=”tdm-sales”]Margins: 2HF, 2 1/4, 3HF. Odds: 0.05, 7.40, 24.30.
Also Ran: Moyo Honey, Backintheacademy, She's Reddy.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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