![]() You might fool her once, but definitely not twice. Her jockey, Gary Stevens, thinks she may be the most intelligent race horse he’s ever ridden. But she’s here, and we’re here long enough I think she’ll think this is home pretty quick.” If she runs in the Classic the way she performs in California, particularly her last two races at Del Mar, the other nine horses may be vying for second-place money. My only concern right now is just to get her in the best shape I could get her for the race and what happens happens.” “It (no wins outside California) concerns me no more than everything else that concerns me. “Any time you’re running a race like this you’re concerned about everything,” he said. If Mandella is concerned, he did a good job of concealing it this week. All systems are go for the Classic and a showdown against Triple Crown king American Pharoah and eight others. Nerves? Whatever it was, trainer Richard Mandella reported Wednesday morning that her temperature was back to normal and she was scheduled to gallop over the main track on Thursday. This week, she spiked a low fever the morning after shipping to Keeneland for the Breeders’ Cup. She finished fourth, but was beaten only a length. Close Hatches got the best of her that afternoon, but Beholder had a valid excuse - a deep gash in her left hind pastern that was incurred either in the starting gate or during the race. She got revenge six months later when she whipped Close Hatches and four others in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita.įast forward to June 2014 at Belmont Park and the Ogden Phipps Stakes. She ran a strong race, but she also suffered one of her five career losses. In 2013, she ran second to the talented Close Hatches in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. Beholder’s kryptonite has been her inability to ship and win. It’s not like she hasn’t been competitive when shipping outside the state, and she’s done it only twice, but the cynics love to poke holes in any perceived weaknesses. She’ll try to change that in this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, on Oct. Much like many top Southern California-based horses before her, she hasn’t been able to win outside the Golden State. She finished in a different area code than the boys in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar in August, winning by a near-record 8 1/4 lengths, and is considered the best female race horse in training in the U.S.īut as great as Beholder’s been, she has a chink in her armor. Now we have Beholder, who’s won 15 of 20 lifetime and is a two-time Eclipse Award winner. When the speedy 3-year-old Offlee Wild colt crossed under the wire first by a nose and then withstood a controversial stewards’ inquiry, Baffert had that one final piece to his resume that had been missing. For the brilliant mare Beholder, the third time could be the charm.īaffert finally got that elusive first Breeders’ Cup Classic victory last fall when Bayern ran the race of his life. It took Bob Baffert 13 tries to shed that pesky monkey off his back.
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