Stellar Wind, Songbird may square off in Beholder Mile

Stellar Wind, fresh from winning the Grade I Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park Friday in her 2017 debut, will be pointed to the Grade I Beholder Mile at Santa Anita on June 3, according to Larry Benavidez, assistant to trainer John Sadler.

“The Beholder is a logical spot, it’s a Grade I at her home track and that’s our goal,” Benavidez said Saturday morning. “It’s a no-brainer.”

Stellar Wind, champion three-year-old filly of 2015 and two-time conqueror of four-time Eclipse Award champion Beholder, is a five-year-old daughter of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin owned by Sadler’s principal clients, Kosta and Peter Hronis.

The Apple Blossom was her first race since the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita last Nov. 5, when she finished fourth behind Beholder.

Also possible for the Beholder Mile are two-time champion Songbird, Finest City, female sprint champion of 2016, and streaking graded stakes winner Vale Dori, who captured the Grade I Santa Margarita Stakes last out on March 18.

Two-time champion Songbird worked three furlongs Saturday morning under exercise rider Edgar Rodriguez in 36.60 as she prepares for her four-year-old debut, possibly in the Grade I Beholder Mile on June 3.

“If all works out, she could be ready for that, if everything’s going the way it’s going right now,” said Dan Ward, assistant to Jerry Hollendorfer.

Songbird galloped out four furlongs in 49 flat.

FINISH LINES: Jerry and Ann Moss’s Gormley worked three furlongs for John Shirreffs Saturday in 37.80, his first recorded breeze since winning the Santa Anita Derby one week ago. The son of Malibu Moon, with 125 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, 100 gleaned from winning the Santa Anita Derby, is on course for the Run for the Roses on May 6. Shirreffs plans to work his other Kentucky Derby prospect, Santa Anita Derby third-place finisher Royal Mo, on Sunday. The son of Uncle Mo was an eventful third, beaten just a length in the Santa Anita Derby under Gary Stevens, after a wide trip from the No. 13 post position . . . Ike Walker, scratched from today’s Los Angeles Stakes, will be nominated to the Grade III Steve Sexton Mile to be run May 7 at Lone Star Park, Jerry Hollendorfer assistant Dan Ward said. Ike Walker worked six furlongs Saturday in 1:14.20 . . . Follow Me Crev and Prospect Park, candidates for the Grade II Californian Stakes on April 22, each worked six furlongs Saturday, the former in 1:14 for Vladimir Cerin and the latter in 1:13.80 for Cliff Sise Jr. . . . Jeff Bonde was happy to have given Kyle Frey a leg up on victorious Atomic Action in Friday’s eighth race. It was the first Santa Anita mount for Frey since the 25-year-old Eclipse Award winner as the nation’s outstanding apprentice rider of 2011 moved his tack from Golden Gate Fields. “It was a good start for him,” the trainer said.