Mandella: Beholder 'One of the Greats'

Just after the sun came up on a muggy, overcast morning Aug. 23 at Del Mar, around 12 hours after Beholder wowed the racing world with her emphatic victory in the TVG Pacific Classic (gr. I), trainer Richard Mandella was still all smiles looking back on the achievement of his prized pupil.

 

"She's one of the greats," Mandella said the 5-year-old Henny Hughes mare after she became the first female to win the Pacific Classic, her eighth grade I victory in her first try against males and first attempt at 1 1/4 miles. "By now, you've got to say that. In her mare races, she didn't win them by that far, because (jockey) Gary (Stevens) only let her run an eighth of a mile."

 

 

The 64-year-old Hall of Fame conditioner has seen the two-time Eclipse Award winner take grade I races at every racing age—2, 3, 4, and 5—and doesn't hide his affection for the Spendthrift Farm runner.

 

"It is amazing that she could hold that level," he said. "Most of them don't stay sound enough, especially if they're used at 2. She's getting better."

 

The journey has not been without frequent bumps, but even those led Beholder to this point, where Mandella is in the position of being able to chose whether to run the mare in either the Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I) or against males again in the Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I) at Keeneland.

 

It was an illness before the Distaff last year that not only knocked her out of that race, but also out of the Fasig-Tipton November sale. If she went through the ring and was sold to be bred, she may have never raced again. There were also foot issues last year that made her miss the 2014 Del Mar summer meet.

 

 

"It was never bad. There were no disappointments," Mandella said. "Horses do things like that. That's part of the game. But if you look on the positive side, that's why she's here. She might have been gone."

 

The reason why Beholder was so impressive in the Pacific Classic Aug. 22 may simply be because she's finally been able to settle into a routine. Another illness—albeit more minor than last year's—also took her out of the Vanity Stakes (gr. I) in May, when the plan was to take her back to Belmont Park for another run in the Ogden Phipps Stakes (gr. I) (she was fourth in 2014, but sustained an injury during that race).

 

 

But despite the setbacks, she got on track with easy victories in the Adoration (gr. III) and Clement L. Hirsch (gr. I) earlier this year and was primed and ready for the Pacific Classic.

 

"We finally got into a pattern," Mandella said. "It's been hit and miss—those disappointments you guys are talking about. Pointing to this, and this happens. Pointing to that, and that happens... You run and you're out—there was no way to build."

 

Now the question is whether she can keep building. Mandella said the next stop for Beholder is likely the Zenyatta Stakes (gr. I) Sept. 26 at Santa Anita Park, a race she's won twice in the past (2013 and 2014), but the Breeders' Cup remains somewhat unknown. With automatic berths in the Distaff and Classic in his back pocket, Mandella isn't willing to show his hand.

 

"I'm not going to worry about it today and you aren't going to make me nervous," Mandella said. "But (the Breeders' Cup Classic) is a different look than this one was."

 

The idea of shipping Beholder to Keeneland for either race even has its pitfalls. Mandella openly acknowledges she has issues traveling. She hasn't won in two starts outside of California, albeit against top-level competition. Along with the 2014 Ogden Phipps, she ran second to 38-1 longshot Princess of Sylmar in the 2013 Longines Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) after being fractious before the race, even unseating jockey Garrett Gomez.

 

"She's just a little tough to handle sometimes and gets herself in trouble," Mandella said. "It's aggression. When she's tough, she's really tough. When she's sweet, she's really sweet—most of the time. Have you ever see seen her school, with the boys trying to get her home? Two gorillas holding onto her and she kicks them around like playthings."

 

For the immediate future, Mandella said Beholder came out of the race in good order and ate up well.

 

"She came back and was hollering for her feed, like a colt," Mandella said. "Which she is, a lot, like a colt."

 

The future remains in the future, of course, but the trainer couldn't help but keep reminiscing about that move in the final turn of the Pacific Classic, when Beholder effortlessly left a group of seasoned older horses in the dust.

 

"That move, it set me back. It was like she was leaving the starting gate," he said. "I think the boys pissed her off. I think they were telling sexist jokes on the backside."