Beholder, Stellar Wind Renew Rivalry

The budding rivalry between champions Beholder and Stellar Wind will see its third round Oct. 1 in the $300,000 Zenyatta Stakes (gr. I) at Santa Anita Park.

Spendthrift Farm's Beholder took the first round comfortably June 4 at Santa Anita in the Vanity Mile (gr. I), but Hronis Racing's Stellar Wind flipped the script July 30 in the Clement L. Hirsch (gr. I) at Del Mar to hand the three-time champion her first loss since June of 2014.

BALAN: Stellar Wind Upsets Beholder in Hirsch

That Clement L. Hirsch win would seemingly put the 4-year-old Curlin   filly on equal terms with her older rival, but Beholder went on to run well to finish second behind California Chrome   in the TVG Pacific Classic (gr. I). Beholder's trainer Richard Mandella said after the Hirsch that he may have had her too "fat and pretty" and not entirely cranked up to run against Stellar Wind in that second meeting.

"I might have contributed to getting her beat the first time," Mandella said. "(I) might have been too easy on her, but that's just something you can guesstimate. You can't—there's no facts to it. The fact is she's running very well. There's no way we would ever be disappointed in her. But she's training very well and I think she's up to one of her best races coming up."

In the Stellar Wind camp, trainer John Sadler is similarly enthusiastic for his two-time grade I winner to again take on Beholder, who could win the Zenyatta an unprecedented fourth time. Beholder equaled the race's namesake and 2010 Horse of the Year with a third consecutive victory last year. Zenyatta won the race in 2008, 2009, and 2010 when it was called the Lady's Secret Stakes. The pair also will likely face off again in the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I), where they should encounter another champion in Songbird.

"I'm excited," Sadler said. "The Zenyatta is the last prep before the Breeders' Cup Distaff and it's going to be another classic matchup—two great fillies, four Eclipse Awards between them.

"It looks like it's going to be another epic race. Stellar Wind has trained really well and hasn't missed a day or an oat, or anything since her last race, so we're looking forward to it."

The Zenyatta is a Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" race to the Distaff.

Of the three other entrants for the Zenyatta, Stonestreet Stables' homebred Tara's Tango figures to be the most likely to spring an upset. A 4-year-old Unbridled's Song filly, Tara's Tango is also a grade I winner—she took the March 19 Santa Margarita (gr. I) at 1 1/8 miles—and has some familiarity with Stellar Wind. The gray or roan filly trained by Jerry Hollendorfer was just a nose back behind Stellar Wind in the Summertime Oaks (gr. II) in June of 2015.

BALAN: Stellar Wind Edges 'Tango' in Summertime Oaks

Completing the field is the Mandella-trained Off the Road, fourth in the Hirsch (21 1/2 lengths behind Stellar Wind), and Bob Baffert-trained Vale Dori, a group I winner in her native Argentina in 2015 who won the Tranquility Lake Stakes last time out in her second U.S. start.