Arcadia, CA (SportsNetwork.com) – Two-time champion mare Beholder will make
her season debut in Friday’s $75,000 Santa Lucia Stakes at Santa Anita.
Trained by Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, the 5-year-old was supplemented
into the 1 1/16-mile Santa Lucia where she will take on seven other older
fillies and mares.
Beholder, owned by Spendthrift Farm, will start from post 6 with Hall of Fame
jockey Gary Stevens back to guide the champion. The mare won last year’s Santa
Lucia by 5 1/4-lengths in making her 2014 debut.
Friday’s start will be the mare’s first since winning her second straight
Zenyatta Stakes on Sept. 27 at Santa Anita. She spiked a fever last October
that forced her to be withdrawn from defending her title in the Breeders’ Cup
Distaff. Beholder was a close fourth in the 1 1/16 miles Ogden Phipps Stakes
at Belmont Park on June 7.
Beholder had been slated to start in Friday’s Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park
but had a disappointing workout last Thursday at Santa Anita when she worked
seven furlongs in 1:26.80.
“I was kind of half-thinking of going to Oaklawn,” Mandella had said, “but now
I’m going to back down a little bit and point to the Vanity.”
Beholder was 2-year-old filly champion of 2012 and 2013 champion 3-year-old
filly and has won 10 of 15 starts, including the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile
Fillies, for $3,368,300.
Here is the complete field for the Santa Lucia in post position order:
Backintheacademy, Tiago Pereira; Tiz Midnight, Martin Garcia; Melanistic,
Tyler Baze; Uzziel, Kent Desormeaux; Gusto Dolce, Flavien Prat; Beholder, Gary
Stevens; Oscar Party, Santiago Gonzalez and Sky Mega, Elvis Trujillo.
Post time for the Santa Lucia will be approximately 6:30 p.m. ET.
