Beholder

[Calzone Lord]

Mandella was on HRTV the morning of Big Cap day to talk about Beholder.

It was a surprisingly good interview because he was willing to go into great detail of explaining the throat ulcer Beholder came out of her last race with.

He explained basically that it was just a sore throat and the process he went through to clean it up and that he put her on antibiotics and he was pleased with how she has responded to it.

However, Beholder picked the wrong day to have a sore throat that day, because she was sprinting in a race with 6 other one-way speeds including the viciously fast Dawn's Charm. The race melted down and Beholder was 2nd to lone-closer Renee's Titan.

Beholder reversed that result on Saturday, winning nicely while her last out conqueror Renee's Titan was beaten 14 lengths. This caused one HRTV commentator to actually say "she's just better routing" and the other one seemed to play along and agree. A facepalm moment.

On top of figures and visual impressions, Beholder's pedigree is all sprint speed.

Her sire is Henny Hughes. Her dam Leslie's Lady won 5 career races, at an AVG win distance of 5.70 furlongs. She was on the lead before fading in the stretch in the 5.5 furlong Debutante at Churchill at age 2. You know, that early season 2yo race that is often loaded with a bunch of wire-to-wire winners at 4.5 and 5 furlongs. Beholder's 2nd dam won both of her career starts going 5 furlongs at Fort Erie.

I incorrectly predicted a pace meltdown in the Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies -- Rosie rated Kauai Katie back so that never happened. In the Kentucky Oaks, something will go with Beholder, and if she's in there I'm predicting another pace meltdown and I'm hoping she fades and we see her get a chance to prove herself as a sprinter.