Saturday's Beholder Mile lived up to advance billing

The Beholder Mile lived up to its advance billing.

If it wasn’t the Race of the Year to date, it assuredly was Santa Anita’s Race of the Meet, with 1-2 favorite Stellar Wind pressing pacesetter Vale Dori throughout and prevailing by a neck in a no-holds-barred stretch battle, with Finest City a non-menacing third, five lengths behind Stellar Wind in the field of three.

The race played out just as Stellar Wind’s trainer John Sadler had envisioned, leaving the race strategy up to Espinoza, who had ridden the three-year-old filly champion of 2105 in her last 11 races, winning seven.

“Victor knows her well enough that he can’t let a really good horse like Vale Dori get an easy lead,” Sadler said Sunday morning. “He broke a little slow but then he went up and got with her. She looks good this morning, and the Clement Hirsch (Grade I, 1 1/16 miles at Del Mar July 30) is probably the most logical spot for her next race. It keeps her on a schedule for the Breeders’ Cup (Distaff) at Del Mar in November.

“It was a good horse race. The other mare is very good, she won six in a row, so it was a good win.”