Beholder spikes fever, will miss BC Distaff

"By about 9 a.m. her fever had risen significantly and was serious," Blea

continued. "We conferred again and made the decision to treat her symptoms

aggressively. We did blood work and gave her penicillin. She is what matters

most and we decided to treat her as we normally would, no matter the race.

"I saw her myself at about noon and she was already brighter and more alert

than she had been earlier."

Beholder was going for her third Breeders' Cup victory, having

captured the Juvenile Fillies in 2012 and last year's Distaff. Those wins helped

her earn Eclipse Awards as champion two-year-old filly and champion

three-year-old filly.

The bay four-year-old would have entered the Distaff off just three starts this season.

She made her 2014 debut at Santa Anita in the April 20 Santa Lucia, scoring by 5

1/4 lengths that day, then showed up on June 7 at Belmont Park to finish fourth,

just missing by a length, in the Ogden Phipps.

Beholder suffered a bad cut on her left hind pastern in the Phipps and didn't

return to training in early August, forcing her to miss the entire

Del Mar meet. However, that

wasn't the end of her troubles.

"In her big work at Del Mar before the end of the meet she split that injury

open," Mandella explained at the time. "We had to put five stitches in it again

to try and heal it a second time. She missed a week's training and was just able

to get ready in time for (the Zenyatta). Most horses could not have gotten

ready."

Beholder defended her title in the September 27 Zenyatta back at Santa Anita

by three parts of a length, and Saturday's work was one of her final major moves

before going for a second straight Distaff win.

Spendthrift Farm has entered Beholder -- who currently sports a

15-10-3-0, $3,368,300, career record -- in the Fasig-Tipton November Sale on

November 3 in Lexington, Kentucky.

"As disappointed and sad as we are about the fact that we

aren't going to get to run, we can't have any negative feelings about Beholder

because she's been so good to us," Mandella added. "We'll monitor her and give her the proper care until plans are made to fly her to Kentucky to go through the November sale at

Fasig-Tipton."

"The Breeders' Cup is too close," Blea agreed. "It is too much to ask her to

work in a week and then run with a situation like this, even if she does rebound

quickly."

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