Why Beholder Has Outrun Her Pedigree
Oct 10, 2015 13:03:07 GMT -5
Post by cait on Oct 10, 2015 13:03:07 GMT -5
interesting analysis - it's really hard to tell how good she is as she hasn't beaten much this year but mandella's opinion has to be respected (if he's calling the shots and not the owners)
Why Beholder Has Outrun Her Pedigree
Steve Haskin
Bloodhorse
There are freak racehorses and there are freak pedigrees. They don’t come around very often, and on those rare occasions when they do, they normally defy explanation. Now, when you have a freak of a racehorse who just happens to have a freaky pedigree, then you have found something extra special. And that appears to be the case with Beholder.
If you listened to Gary Stevens describe in detail on TVG what it’s like riding Beholder following her other-worldly victory in the Pacific Classic, you can understand why she is unlike other horses…at least unlike anything Hall of Famer Stevens has ever ridden.
But is she a freak or did she run one extremely freakish race? Starting with her victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Beholder’s average Beyer Speed Figure, excluding the Pacific Classic, is 95.6, and in those 15 starts, she has run only three triple digit Beyers (101, 105, and 106). Yet in the Pacific Classic, she ran a 114. Did a daughter of Henny Hughes actually improve that dramatically stretching out to 1 1/4 miles, which goes against all breeding logic? Other than the 114 figure, her last five Beyers have been 99, 98, 98, 97, and 99. So are we going to see a repeat performance of the Pacific Classic in the Breeders’ Cup Classic? Does she have that in her again?
Listening to Stevens, she very well may, or at least come close enough to make it two-for-two against the boys. It is something no one can know or can predict until the field turns for home on Oct. 31.
Stevens said on TVG he had never experienced anything like Beholder’s decimation of the boys in the Pacific Classic, in which she appeared to be moving in a different time frame than the other horses on the far turn, while making one of the most startling moves seen in a very long time…a move she has never made before even in her tour-de-force in the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Stevens said he didn’t even press the button on the turn; it was all her. And when her ears came up approaching the top of the stretch, Stevens thought, “Wow, I’m loaded. I hope the boss (trainer Dick Mandella) doesn’t mind, but I’m gonna let her put on a little show when she swaps onto her right lead.”
When she did, Stevens chirped to her, showed her the whip, and she was gone, coming home her final quarter in :24 3/5, while drawing off to an 8 1/4-length victory in a blazing 1:59 3/5, which earned her that huge 114 Beyer speed figure.
“I let out a scream at the finish line of someone that had never felt that before in a race of this level,” Stevens continued.
Another of her strengths that enables her to turn in dominating performances is her intelligence. Stevens said riding her is like hitting the keys on a computer. You want to slow her down, you hit the backspace. You want her to go, you hit the forward key. Turning for home in the Pacific Classic, Stevens hit the shift key and she shifted into a gear that left him and everyone else in awe. Down the stretch, he finally hit the delete key, which for all intents and purposes deleted the other horses from the race. She seems to sense what the pace is as much as he does. Approaching the gate, Stevens could hear her take a big breath and fill her lungs with oxygen. When he saw Bayern and Midnight Storm at each other’s throats down the backstretch, he just eased back on the reins ever so lightly with three fingers and she just “shut down” for him.
it's long - here's the rest of the article
cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2015/10/08/why-beholder-has-outrun-her-pedigree.aspx
Why Beholder Has Outrun Her Pedigree
Steve Haskin
Bloodhorse
There are freak racehorses and there are freak pedigrees. They don’t come around very often, and on those rare occasions when they do, they normally defy explanation. Now, when you have a freak of a racehorse who just happens to have a freaky pedigree, then you have found something extra special. And that appears to be the case with Beholder.
If you listened to Gary Stevens describe in detail on TVG what it’s like riding Beholder following her other-worldly victory in the Pacific Classic, you can understand why she is unlike other horses…at least unlike anything Hall of Famer Stevens has ever ridden.
But is she a freak or did she run one extremely freakish race? Starting with her victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Beholder’s average Beyer Speed Figure, excluding the Pacific Classic, is 95.6, and in those 15 starts, she has run only three triple digit Beyers (101, 105, and 106). Yet in the Pacific Classic, she ran a 114. Did a daughter of Henny Hughes actually improve that dramatically stretching out to 1 1/4 miles, which goes against all breeding logic? Other than the 114 figure, her last five Beyers have been 99, 98, 98, 97, and 99. So are we going to see a repeat performance of the Pacific Classic in the Breeders’ Cup Classic? Does she have that in her again?
Listening to Stevens, she very well may, or at least come close enough to make it two-for-two against the boys. It is something no one can know or can predict until the field turns for home on Oct. 31.
Stevens said on TVG he had never experienced anything like Beholder’s decimation of the boys in the Pacific Classic, in which she appeared to be moving in a different time frame than the other horses on the far turn, while making one of the most startling moves seen in a very long time…a move she has never made before even in her tour-de-force in the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Stevens said he didn’t even press the button on the turn; it was all her. And when her ears came up approaching the top of the stretch, Stevens thought, “Wow, I’m loaded. I hope the boss (trainer Dick Mandella) doesn’t mind, but I’m gonna let her put on a little show when she swaps onto her right lead.”
When she did, Stevens chirped to her, showed her the whip, and she was gone, coming home her final quarter in :24 3/5, while drawing off to an 8 1/4-length victory in a blazing 1:59 3/5, which earned her that huge 114 Beyer speed figure.
“I let out a scream at the finish line of someone that had never felt that before in a race of this level,” Stevens continued.
Another of her strengths that enables her to turn in dominating performances is her intelligence. Stevens said riding her is like hitting the keys on a computer. You want to slow her down, you hit the backspace. You want her to go, you hit the forward key. Turning for home in the Pacific Classic, Stevens hit the shift key and she shifted into a gear that left him and everyone else in awe. Down the stretch, he finally hit the delete key, which for all intents and purposes deleted the other horses from the race. She seems to sense what the pace is as much as he does. Approaching the gate, Stevens could hear her take a big breath and fill her lungs with oxygen. When he saw Bayern and Midnight Storm at each other’s throats down the backstretch, he just eased back on the reins ever so lightly with three fingers and she just “shut down” for him.
it's long - here's the rest of the article
cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2015/10/08/why-beholder-has-outrun-her-pedigree.aspx