Beholder launches comeback in Santa Lucia

Two-time Eclipse Award winner Beholder (Henny Hughes) is using a familiar

starting point -- Friday's $75,000

Santa

Lucia S. at Santa Anita -- for her 2015 campaign. The Richard Mandella

trainee found the 1 1/16-mile event an ideal kickoff for 2014, and the defending

champion once again has a sizeable class edge over the competition.

Yet Beholder's return engagement in the Santa Lucia takes on a different

aspect this time around. Unlike last year, when the Spendthrift Farm colorbearer

entered with a three-race winning streak crowned by the Breeders' Cup Distaff

(G1), Beholder makes her first start back from an illness that struck last fall.

She spiked a high fever, ruling her out of a Breeders' Cup title defense. After

developing some inflammation in her lungs, she was also withdrawn from the Fasig-Tipton

Kentucky November Sale so that she could continue her convalescence in

California.

Once restored to health, Beholder resumed training, and she's been a regular

on the Santa Anita worktab since February. Mandella mulled Grade 1 options

elsewhere, with last Saturday's Madison at Keeneland and this Friday's Apple

Blossom at Oaklawn, but ultimately preferred to keep her home and point for the

May 9 Vanity (G1). The Santa Lucia is a cozy prep, being restricted to

distaffers at least four years old who have not won a graded stakes at a mile or

beyond in 2015.

The other co-highweight, Tiz Midnight (Midnight Lute), was second to Beholder

in the Zenyatta and sixth in the Breeders' Cup Distaff. The Bob Baffert mare

rebounded by taking the Bayakoa (G2) in track-record time at Los Alamitos, but

later disappointed as the 3-5 favorite in the Paseana. Unraced since that

January 11 contest, Tiz Midnight has drawn post 2 with Martin Garcia.

Uzziel (Harlington) is the only other entrant with current graded stakes

form. Second to the streaking Warren's Veneda (Affirmative) in the Santa Maria

(G2) two starts ago, she exits a fourth to the same rival in the 1 1/8-mile

Santa Margarita (G1). Uzziel should appreciate the cutback in trip, if not the

prospect of facing Beholder and Tiz Midnight, who is the last horse to beat

Warren's Veneda.

Rounding out the field are Beholder's stablemate Gusto Dolce (T. H.

Approval), a Brazilian Group 2 victress who was sixth in her U.S. bow February

20; Melanistic (Ministers Wild Cat), most recently second in the Dream of

Summer; turf stakes performer Oscar Party (Dixie Union); and the

class-challenged Sky Mega (Sky Mesa) and Backintheacademy (Put It Back).