BEHOLDER TARGETS BC CLASSIC

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Champion racemare Beholder will target the Oct. 31 Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I) and a potential showdown with Triple Crown winner American Pharoah at Keeneland, Spendthrift Farm general manager Ned Toffey confirmed Sept. 15.

Her connections have also decided not to offer her at auction immediately after the World Championships, in the hopes of racing another year, and Spendthrift owner B. Wayne Hughes will likely keep the mare even after she retires.

Toffey was busy at the Keeneland September yearling sale, but took a few moments to discuss the future of two-time Eclipse Award winner Beholder, who last time out trounced the boys in the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic (gr. I) Aug. 22 at Del Mar.

"I think with the Pacific Classic, she maybe reached a whole other level ... and we may actually race her again next year," he explained. "She's just a special, special mare and those kind don't come along very often."

Beholder, who won the 2013 Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I) and 2012 Grey Goose Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) for Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella, missed last year's World Championships due to a fever. This year, becoming the first female to win the Pacific Classic since its beginning in 1991, she earned an automatic spot in the starting gate for the Classic through the Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" program.

"We're never going to run her unless she's 100%, so if she's 100% we would plan on the Breeders' Cup Classic," Toffey said. "But we don't have to make that decision for a little bit. Right now the intention is the (Sept. 26) Zenyatta (gr. I, at Santa Anita) and the Breeders' Cup Classic.

"We would only race her next year if Richard gave her the go-ahead, and Richard always has her best interests at heart. And if she's 100% sound—which she generally has been; she spiked a fever here once, she got a cut on a leg once—but it turns out the kind of soundnes (issues) that end careers, she's had none of that, knock on wood. We've been very fortunate with her not to have any of that, so if she were to go through the Breeders' Cup and we assessed her and felt that we were still in the same boat, we would probably go on and run her next year as well."

Bred in Kentucky by Clarkland Farm out of the Tricky Creek mare Leslie's Lady, Beholder was a $180,000 purchase from the Clarkland consignment at the 2011 Keeneland September sale. She is a half sister to grade I winner Into Mischief, now a Spendthrift stallion. To date she has earnings of $4,256,600 from 19 starts, with 14 wins and 3 seconds, eight of those wins in grade I events. She was named the champion 3-year-old filly in 2013, following her title as outstanding juvenile filly in 2012.

In the 1 1/4-mile Pacific Classic, Beholder romped by 8 1/4 lengths over nine males including last year's Breeders' Cup Classic winner Bayern and grade I winner Hoppertunity. It was the second-largest margin of victory in the race's history, only a quarter less than record-holder Game On Dude's margin of 8 1/2 lengths, and her first start at the distance.

"I think it made a really big impression on Mr. Hughes ..." Toffey said. "We all have talked about how fortunate we are to have her, and Mr. Hughes is 82 years old. He knows these kind don't come around very often, and he decided he'd just like to enjoy her. I think that race, in his mind, put her at a whole other level, and I think he got more enjoyment and emotion about that race than he ever has, certainly as long as I've worked for him. And I'm so glad to see the joy in it. She's a special filly. We ought to be enjoying it."

Toffey said Mandella will have full say in whether Beholder sticks to the Breeders' Cup Classic plan.

"This business is day-to-day, and we have to basically let the horses tell us," he said. "And that's what Richard will do. Richard will let her tell him if she's ready for the next race, and for the Breeders' Cup Classic, and beyond. So we'll have to see...and nothing's set in stone, because this is the horse business and that's how it works."

After making just three starts through a 4-year-old season in which she won her second edition of the Zenyatta and took the Santa Lucia Stakes but finished fourth in the Ogden Phipps Stakes (gr. I) in her first trip to New York, Beholder has come back this year stronger and even more impressive.

"I expected her to run well (in the Pacific Classic) because she's such a mentally tough filly and she always does run well... but I sure didn't expect that," Toffey said. "I don't think you ever could expect what she did in the Pacific Classic. She's always been talented because she's maturing and she's getting so much better mentally, and I think that's helping put her over to the best level."