For all he has accomplished in his Hall of Fame career, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has but two Breeders' Cup wins to his credit. The first came courtesy of Dakota Phone (Zavata), the 37-1 winner of the 2010 GI Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs, and the other in the form of Fox Hill Farm's Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro), who capped a brilliant and undefeated 2-year-old campaign with a 5 3/4-length success in last year's GI Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland. The 'TDN Rising Star', now perfect in 11 career starts, will look to join champion Beholder (Henny Hughes) as the only other filly to follow up with a victory in the following year's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff when she starts a relatively short-priced favorite Friday at Santa Anita.
Drawn the fence, the 6-5 morning-line chalk tries older females for the first time, and a cracking group it is, including the aforementioned Beholder–having the final run of what should be a Hall of Fame career–as well as Stellar Wind (Curlin), who went so close to taking down last year's Distaff before settling for an Eclipse Award as the nation's top sophomore filly.
By all accounts, connections will not deviate from the take-it-to-'em strategy that has seen her punish the competition by an average winning margin of nearly six lengths.
“She just jumps away from the gate so quickly that drawing the rail really should have no effect on her,” jockey Mike Smith said. “I think she's the natural speed in the race to start with. It's pretty straight forward.”
Having equaled or surpassed Songbird's career-best 101 Beyer Speed Figure no fewer than nine times in 25 starts, Beholder–who crept past the $5-million mark in career earnings when just defeated by Stellar Wind in defense of her GI Zenyatta S. title Oct. 1–bookends the Distaff field from gate eight, to the delight of trainer Richard Mandella.
“It's nice to get off the rail,” trainer Mandella said about the 5-2 co-second choice, “but I am a bigger believer in good luck, so we are hoping for good luck.”
Stellar Wind leads the season series against Beholder by a count of 2-1, employing never-quit tactics to win the GI Clement L. Hirsch S. at Del Mar in July ahead of the Zenyatta.
“Stellar Wind is doing great and the post position is great,” said jockey Victor Espinoza, who also has live Breeders' Cup chances in California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) in the GI Classic and atop Gormley (Malibu Moon) in the GI Juvenile. “I really like my chances.”
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