Paradise Woods tries to follow Beholder's footsteps in Torrey Pines
The 3-year-old campaigns of champion Beholder in 2013 and Paradise Woods this year are the same – from April to September.
They both won the Santa Anita Oaks in April, were defeated in the Kentucky Oaks in May and, after a rest, came back in the $100,000 Torrey Pines Stakes here. Beholder won the then-ungraded mile for 3-year-old fillies wire-to-wire on September 1, 2013. Paradise Woods makes her racing return as the 7-5 morning line favorite Sunday in a field of eight in a race that was accorded Grade III status in 2014.
And that scheduling circumstance is as far as Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella is prepared to go in connecting Beholder, one of the most brilliant female runners ever, and the talented, Kentucky-bred daughter of Union Rags he’ll saddle on Sunday.
“I’m just trying to get a nice race in (Paradise Woods) and we’ll see what we do afterwards, I’m not going to predict any plans,” Mandella said Saturday morning. “We’re hoping to win this and not worried about the next one down the line.”
Beholder raced five times as a 2-year-old, won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and the first of four Eclipse Awards. Before the Santa Anita Oaks in 2013, she was a close second and won in Graded Stakes company. She went off at 9-1 in the Kentucky Oaks, led into the stretch and was caught late to lose by a half-length to Princess of Sylmar.
Paradise Woods was unraced at two, broke her maiden in March at Santa Anita in her second career start, and then produced an eye-popping 11 ¾-length Santa Anita Oaks win that had observers thinking they’d just seen the Kentucky Oaks champion.
The 6-5 favorite at Churchill Downs on a cold, blustery day and running over a sloppy track, Paradise Woods finished 11th of 14. “Hounded to quarter pole, caved,” were the running notes in the Daily Racing Form.
“Mentally, it was just too much for her at one time,” Mandella said. “It kind of set her back. A combination of a lot of things. She went from a maiden to the Santa Anita Oaks to the Kentucky Oaks and it was just too much. Maybe it was too much for me, too.
“We think she’s in good shape to get started again. And that’s what this is, a start back.”
The field from the rail: Paradise Woods (Flavien Prat, 7-5), Chocolate Coated (Gary Stevens, 15-1), Zapperkat (Norberto Arroyo, Jr., 3-1), Delitefull Lady (Corey Nakatani, 10-1), Mistressofthenight (Rafael Bejarano, 6-1), Helen Hillary (Joe Talamo, 10-1), Bernina Star (Santiago Gonzalez, 8-1) and Munny Spunt (Drayden Van Dyke, 10-1).
Source: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club