Stellar Wind Works Six Furlongs for Beholder Mile

Champion Stellar Wind worked six furlongs under regular rider Victor Espinoza at 6:30 Saturday morning in 1:12.80 for the Grade I, $400,000 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares, three and up, on June 3. She worked in company with Pappou, who was clocked in 1:14 flat.

“Stellar Wind looked very nice, very sharp,” said John Sadler, who trains the Eclipse Award winner as outstanding three-year-old filly of 2015 for owners Kosta and Peter Hronis.

“She’s excellent,” Espinoza said after the drill. “Her work today was unbelievable, better than ever. I was really excited. She worked in company but her company couldn’t keep up with her. I was behind Pappou by two lengths and left her at the quarter pole and just went on.”

Also possible for the Beholder are two-time Eclipse champion Songbird, champion female sprinter of 2016 FinestCity, and streaking graded stakes winner Vale Dori.

“It will be an instant classic, it really will, with such high quality mares,” Sadler said. “The downside is you don’t get horses shipping from the east, because why would they travel cross country to run against mares that tough?”

Espinoza will be in Charlotte, North Carolina, tomorrow, serving as Grand Marshall of the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

MOE CANDY LOOKS GOOD FOR KONA GOLD

John Sadler hopes a return to “home cooking” will result in a return to form for Moe Candy in Saturday’s Grade II, $200,000 Kona Gold Stakes for the five-year-old gray son of Candy Ride owned by the Hronis brothers, Kosta and Peter.

In five races on Santa Anita’s main track, the consistent Moe Candy has two wins, two seconds and a third.

Moe Candy, never worse than third in his seven previous races, finished sixth last out in the Count Fleet Sprint Championship at Oaklawn Park April 15 in a five-wide trip going six furlongs under Victor Espinoza.

“He didn’t like the track, his hind legs got cut up and he was slipping and sliding all over, Victor said,” explained Sadler. “He’s come back and had three works and looked real good, so we’re back in the Kona Gold.”

The field for the Kona Gold, race nine of 11 with a first post time of 12 noon: Moe Candy, Santiago Gonzalez, 5-1; Calculator, Norberto Arroyo Jr., 7-2; Kobe’s Back, Gary Stevens, 9-2; Kentuckian, Tyler Baze, 12-1; Touched by Autism, Tiago Pereira, 30-1; Ransom the Moon, Flavien Prat, 4-1; Lord Simba, Martin Garcia, 5-2; and Eastwood, Joe Talamo, 6-1. Dr. Dorr was scratched.

HEADLEY REMEMBERS LATE, GREAT KONA GOLD

Saturday’s Kona Gold Stakes is named for the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner who was trained with a fine tooth comb by Bruce Headley, who nursed the son of Java Gold to successful campaigns through his nine-year-old season.

Kona Gold won 14 of 30 career starts, including the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs as a six-year-old, breaking the track and Breeders’ Cup record for six furlongs in a time of 1:07.77. That year he won an Eclipse Award as champion sprinter and was runner-up in Horse of the Year voting to Tiznow.

At the sprightly age of nine, Kona Gold won the Grade III El Conejo Handicap in 2003 before retiring at 10 the next year with earnings of $2,293,284. He spent several years as Headley’s stable pony after his retirement and was euthanized in September of 2009 at the age of 15 after a paddock accident at the KentuckyHorsePark, where he resided in the Hall of Champions for almost two years.

“Kona Gold was perfectly made, never nervous, a natural runner and sound as a brass bell,” recalled the 83-year-old Headley, patriarch of a racing family that include his wife, Aase, daughter Karen, and son, Gus.

“He was sired by a router but built like a quarter horse, so I always sprinted him.”

FINISH LINES: There were 164 recorded workouts at Santa Anita Friday, 18 on the training track. Leandro Mora, assistant to trainer Doug O’Neill who will fly to Baltimore tonight to saddle Term of Art in Saturday’s Preakness, was riding shotgun. Mora supervised 34 drills by O’Neill runners, including a five furlong move by Grade I Triple Bend winner Denman’s Call, who was clocked in 1:00.20, handily from the gate . . . Trainer Richard Baltas has San Clemente Handicap winner Mokat scheduled to work Saturday under Rafael Bejarano for the Grade I Gamely Stakes next Saturday. Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown has monster mare Lady Eli, winner of seven of her 10 career races with three seconds by a combined margin of less than a length,set to come in for the nine furlong race on turf where she will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., who has been aboard the daughter Divine Park in all of her races . . . The California Horse Racing Board will conduct its regular monthly meeting next Thursday, May 25, 9:30 a.m. at Santa Anita. The Race Dates Committee will meet 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 24, followed by the Medication, Safety and Welfare Committee at 12:30 p.m. The meetings will be in the Baldwin Terrace Room and the public is encouraged to attend. An audio-only webcast of the Board meeting can be heard through a link on the CHRB website (webcast).

Source: Santa Anita Park