Beholder ready for her second career at Spendthrift Farm
Three-time champion mare Beholder arrived at her new home, Spendthrift Farm, yesterday. It was an emotional departure from Richard Mandella’s racing stable in California. The stable star left some big shoes to fill. She’d been a part of Mandella’s daily operation from age two to six. Not many mares are special enough to race that long and continuously run at the highest level.
Beholder went out like the champion that she is by winning the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Distaff by a nose over Songbird. The six-year-old mare and the best three-year-old filly dueled it out, but ultimately it was Beholder who got her nose down on the wire. Her swan song could not have been more perfect.
After exiting the trailer and walking onto Spendthrift’s property, Beholder was alert as ever. She took in her surroundings while being walked to her new stall, where she promptly dug into the hay provided. She gave onlookers a show as she stuck her head out and continued to look around. Though alert, the mare never looked nervous, only curious.
Following the start of the new year, Beholder will be bred to 2015 leading first-crop sire Uncle Mo, sire of 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, who will stand for $150,000 in 2017 at Ashford Stud.
Beholder provided her fans with exciting performances during her four years of racing. She won 18 of 26 starts, and ran second six times. During that she won 11 Grade 1 races, including the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, the 2013 and 2016 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and the 2015 Pacific Classic. Following this year’s Distaff win, her earnings totaled $6,156,600.
With an exciting racing career wrapped up, we will have to wait and see what she accomplishes as a broodmare. Until her first foal hits the ground in 2018, we will cherish the memories she gave us on the track, and look forward to cheering on her progeny in the future.
By Christine Oser