Beholder and Untapable: Friday is Ladies Day
The finest female horses in the United States are accustomed to running on Fridays, and Beholder and Untapable are no different. Between the two of them, not only have they won 18-of-27, nearly $6.5 million, and three Eclipse Awards overall, but they’ve done some of their best running on the last day of the work week. Combined, Beholder and Untapable have won three Breeders’ Cup races, not to mention also collecting a first and second in the Kentucky Oaks, all on Fridays. They won’t be racing each other, but the good news for racefans is that each champion will be in action this Friday.
In Arkansas, Untapable will make her second start of the year in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom, while out West, Beholder will make her long awaited return in the Santa Lucia Stakes.
The Two-year-old filly Champion of 2012, and the Three-year-old filly Champion of 2013, Beholder has not run since winning the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes last September, which unfortunately due to a physical setback, ended her season prematurely.
The Richard Mandella trained mare looks to rule an overwhelming favorite, under Hall of Fame rider Gary Stevens, in Friday’s $75,000 feature. The 1 1/16 mile affair is the same race which the daughter of Henny Hughes opened her 2014 season. Last year, Beholder won by better than five lengths with little encouragement. This year’s field of eight has come up a little tougher than last year, but it still should not present a great test if we see anything similar to the Beholder that we’ve come to appreciate over the past three seasons.
When last seen Untapable was shocked at odds of 1-10 in the Grade 2 Azeri Stakes. The mare that beat her narrowly that day, Gold Medal Dancer will be back to see if she repeat the feat in the $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap. The half-length defeat of Untapable was the surprising winner’s biggest career victory. If she can again beat the 2014 Three-year-old filly Champion, it would be nearly as big a surprise as it was almost four weeks ago, as Untapable has earned that type of respect after last year’s spectacular season.
Six wins in six starts against females last year, the Winchell Thoroughbreds four-year-old dominated her gender like few have over the years, including overpowering wins in races like the Kentucky Oaks and Mother Goose. She was beaten by the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, Bayern in the Haskell, but came back in style to close her season by outrunning older mares in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Beginning to end, Untapable’s 2014 season was so strong that she was named the first unanimous winner of an Eclipse Award in four years. You can see why her season opening defeat last month came as such a big surprise.
Untapable has worked well since the Azeri defeat, prompting confidence from her trainer, Steve Asmussen. “I thought she went beautiful,” Asmussen said after yesterday’s best of 18, four furlong work. “It looks like all systems go.”
In fact, it’s all systems go for both Beholder and Untapable this Friday at Oaklawn and Santa Anita. Two champion mares, early in their respective seasons, who if back to their old selves, could well be on a collision course for a titanic meeting just a little bit down the road.