Beholder wins the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies with ease in a confident wire-to-wire ride by Garret Gomez.
Trained by Richard Mandella, the daughter of Henny Hughes broke from post 1 and didn't look back. Kauai Katie pressed the pace in second under jockey Rosie Napravnik for most of the race, with Bob Baffert's undefeated Executiveprivilege and Rafael Bejarano in third. In the homestretch, Kauai Katie dropped back, allowing Executiveprivilege to roll up to challenge Beholder. Beholder kicked away to win by 2. Dreaming of Julia closed for third.
Beholder paid $9.80 for the win.
Quotes:
Richard Mandella (trainer, Beholder, 1st) – “She ran her
heart out. It was a big effort and being at her home track sure helps. I guess
Santa Anita still has the magic.”
(Mandella won four Breeders’ Cup races at
Santa Anita in 2003)
Garrett Gomez (jockey, Beholder, 1st) – “We figured to
be on the lead unless someone did something, and she ran just to her style.
She’s super fast, and she relaxed as much as I wanted her to. I tried to sneak
away a little on the turn for home, and at first she did it, but then she acted
like she hit a wall and I got a little nervous. But when the other filly
(Executiveprivilege) came to her, she kicked on and gave me another gear. I
guess she was just playing possum with me.”
Rafael Bejarano (jockey, Executiveprivilege, 2nd) – “She
got a little tired at the three-eighths, but she ran all the way. When she
changed leads in the stretch, she drifted out. She did that before (in the Del
Mar Debutante). But she tried. She ran all the way. We just got beat.”
Todd Pletcher (trainer, Dreaming of Julia, 3rd) – “I
thought she ran a little flat. She looked a little lost going to the first turn
and she got shuffled back and pushed out around the turn. She put in a nice run
down the backside to get into position, but just finished evenly from there.”
John Velazquez (jockey, Dreaming of Julia, 3rd) – “She
just wasn’t into it. She lost her focus right from the start. She would run for
a little bit, then she’d stop. She’d run on the turn, then back out of it. She
just didn’t run her race today.”
Todd Pletcher (trainer, Kauai Katie, 4th) – “We got the
trip we were looking for and had good position, but she couldn’t stay with the
leader. We’ll probably look at sprints in the future for her.”