The Clement Hirsch was billed as a two-horse race from the start and that it was, except the winner wasn't the horse everyone expected. Last term's champion sophomore filly Stellar Wind sprung a the upset over heavily-favored three-time Eclipse winner Beholder, who entered this test on an eight-race win streak and suffered her first loss since the 2014 GI Ogden Phipps S. Beholder broke on top from her rail draw and Stellar Wind pushed her every step of the way through early splits of :23.63 and :47.38. The pair distanced themselves from the field approaching the quarter-pole and it was a match race from that point out with the two champions battling stride-for-stride rounding the far turn. Poking a nose in front in early stretch, Stellar Wind was quickly turned back by Beholder and just narrowly avoided bumping her elder, before finding more late to put Beholder away in the final strides for a narrow upset.
“You usually don't get what you want on your birthday, but this year, I did,” winning trainer John Sadler remarked. “She's been training well. She won here last year. And if you think about it, she probably was the best in the [GI] Breeders' Cup Distaff–I don't think anybody would dispute that. She had a prep race [ the GI VanityMile June 4] that was a good race. Victor got off her and said You know, I think we can beat [Beholder] next time.' I kept my mouth shut because I didn't want to look like an idiot, but we thought we had a chance. The difference was having a race and this one [1 1/16 miles] being a little longer. It's good for her and she's an improving, lightly-raced horse. We're kind of following Beholder a little bit. She's a lightly raced mare and we'd like to race her two more years. She's not a horse to run every month, so we'll probably run her in the [GI] Zenyatta [S. Oct. 1] and then the Breeders' Cup Distaff [Nov. 5].”
“She ran her race,” Hall of Fame pilot Gary Stevens said of the Beholder. “You've got to give [Stellar Wind's connections] credit. [Beholder] was comfortable up front. The fractions weren't hard for her. At the three-furlong pole, I saw that shadow [Stellar Wind] and I knew we might have a race. My mare hit another gear at the three-sixteenth, but she stayed right with us. I was surprised that she was staying with us. All credit to them. They were ready and they ran great.”
Making the first two starts of her career for Barbara Houck and trainer Donald Barr in Maryland, Stellar Wind was privately purchased by Hronis Racing and transferred to the West Coast-based Sadler after an 8 3/4-length romp at Laurel in December of 2014. Opening her sophomore season with dominant victories in last term's GIII Santa Ysabel S. and GI Santa Anita Oaks last year, the chestnut was came flying late to finish fourth as the favorite behind Lovely Maria (Majesticperfection) in the GI Kentucky Oaks and returned to winning ways with a narrow victory in the GII Summertime Oaks over “TDN Rising Star” and eventual GI Santa Margarita S. winner Tara's Tango (Unbridled's Song). Successful again in the GIII Torrey Pine S. here last August, the Hronis runner came up just a neck short of Stopchargingmaria (Tale of the Cat) in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff and was awarded the Eclipse for top 3-year-old filly for her efforts. She was last seen finishing second to Beholder when making her seasonal bow in the GI Vanity Mile in Arcadia June 4.
Pedigree Notes…
Stellar Wind is the first foal out of Evening Star, who has since produced the still unraced 3-year-old filly Winter Evening (Exchange Rate); and the unraced juvenile colt Bozeman (Birdstone), who brought $190,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale. She did not produce a foal in 2015 and was most recently bred back to Curlin. Evening Star is a half-sister to MSW Im Out First (Allen's Prospect), who produced Im a Dixie Girl (Dixie Union), the SW dam of GISW Mor Spirit (Eskendereya). She is also a half-sister to SW & GSP Zenith (Roy), who is the dam of GISW Great Hunter (Aptitude).
Saturday, Del Mar
CLEMENT L. HIRSCH S.-GI, $300,000, DMR, 7-30, 3yo/up, f/m,
1 1/16m, 1:41.24, ft.
1–STELLAR WIND, 121, f, 4, by Curlin">Curlin
1st Dam: Evening Star, by Malibu Moon
2nd Dam: Sequins, by Northern Fashion
3rd Dam: Brilliant Touch, by Gleaming
($40,000 Ylg '13 FTSAUG; $86,000 Ylg '13 EASSEP). O-Hronis
Racing LLC; B-Keswick Stables & Stonestreet Thoroughbred
Holdings LLC (VA); T-John W. Sadler; J-Victor Espinoza.
$180,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. 3yo filly, 10-6-2-1, $1,173,200.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick
Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*.
[bullet ad=”bluegrasssar”]2–Beholder, 123, m, 6, Henny Hughes–Leslie's Lady, by Tricky
Creek. ($180,000 Ylg '11 KEESEP). O-Spendthrift Farm LLC;
B-Clarkland Farm (KY); T-Richard E. Mandella. $60,000.
[bullet ad=”clarklandscatdaddy”][bullet ad=”kings-equine-another-kings-equine-graduate-double-bullet”]3–Divina Comedia (Fr), 119, m, 5, Footstepsinthesand (GB)–
Divine Promesse (Fr), by Verglas (Ire). (€20,000 RNA Ylg '12
ARAUG; €130,000 3yo '14 ARQDEC). O-Marsha Naify; B-Haras
Du Mezeray S.A. (FR); T-Simon Callaghan. $36,000.
[bullet ad=”irt-shell”]Margins: HF, 9 3/4, 11 1/4. Odds: 4.50, 0.10, 24.80.
Also Ran: Off the Road (Brz), The Dream (Chi). Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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