Stellar Wind, Vale Dori clash again in Clement L. Hirsch
It’ll be Stellar Wind vs. Vale Dori, Round III – plus four others being sent out to steal the spotlight – when the 47th running of the $300,000 Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes is presented Sunday.
Stellar Wind and Vale Dori were never more than a half-length apart running 1-2 for the distance of the Beholder Mile on June 3 at Santa Anita and traded the lead twice in the stretch. Stellar Wind, trained by John Sadler and ridden by Victor Espinoza, surged in the final 50 yards and held off Bob Baffert-trained Vale Dori and Rafael Bejarano by a neck. They also squared off in the Grade I Zenyatta lst October at Santa Anita when Stellar Wind edged Beholder by a neck with Vale Dori another 11 ¾ lengths back in third.
Their most recent encounter was in a race renamed this year for Beholder, the champion mare that Stellar Wind upset in the 2016 Clement L. Hirsch.
“They’re both really good horses and they run well every time, so we’re expecting another war,” Sadler said. “We’re expecting to stay close to (Vale Dori) and Stellar Wind has been tough in tight finishes.”
Stellar Wind, a 5-year-old daughter of Curlin, has nine wins from 14 career starts and earnings of more than $2 million for Hronis Racing LLC. The Beholder Mile was her second Grade I victory in as many 2017 starts, coming on the heels of an April score in the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park.
Vale Dori, a 5-year-old Argentine-bred, has nine wins in 15 career starts and earnings of over $1 million for Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum. She had won six straight stakes, five of them graded, before the Beholder Mile.
Of the four other entrants: Autumn Flower has been graded stakes placed in three of her last five starts, all of them losses to Vale Dori; Faithfully comes in off a victory in the $70,000 Santa Lucia on June 4 at Santa Anita; Motown Lady and Shenandoah Queen are stepping up from the allowance level.
The 1 1/16-mile race is a “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series qualifier for the $2 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff here on Friday, November 3.
Source: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club