Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Paradise Woods might get prep race for Beholder Mile
ARCADIA, Calif. – Paradise Woods, a two-time Grade 1 winner, emerged from her fourth in the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes at Santa Anita last Saturday with a sore foot, trainer Richard Mandella said.
Mandella said Paradise Woods will be pointed for the Grade 1 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares on June 2, with a possible start in the Grade 3 Adoration Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on May 6.
Paradise Woods was beaten 6 1/2 lengths by Selcourt in the Santa Monica Stakes at seven furlongs. Sent off as the 4-5 favorite, Paradise Woods was near the pace for the first halfmile before fading.
“She has tender feet,” Mandella said. “Training her in the mud and on a sealed track showed after the race. That’s not complaining. There’s not much we can do about it.”
Paradise Woods had her first start of 2018 in the Santa Monica. She was second to the Unique Bella in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs on Dec. 26, opening day of the meeting. Unique Bella was the champion female sprinter of 2017.
In 2017, Paradise Woods won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks in April and the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes in September before finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar in November. The Beholder Mile could be Paradise Woods’s first start around two turns since the BC Distaff at 1 1/8 miles.
“The Beholder Mile looks good,” Mandella said.
Mandella said he is reluctant to race Paradise Woods away from California.
“She won’t be moving around,” Mandella said. “I want to get her back on her game.”
Owned by Marty and Pam Wygod and Steve Sarkowsky, Paradise Woods has won 3 of 9 starts and earned $725,545.
Mandella said that Bendable, the winner of the Grade 3 Desert Stormer Stakes last year, has been retired and will be flown to Kentucky this weekend. Bendable will be bred this spring.
Owned by Claiborne Farms, Bendable, a 5-year-old mare by Horse Greeley, won 4 of 10 starts and earned $256,845 in a threeyear career. Bendable was last of 10 in the Mizdirection Stakes on the hillside turf course last Sunday.
Bendable won the 2016 Beverly Lewis Stakes at Los Alamitos and the Desert Stormer Stakes last June. Earlier this year, Bendable was second in the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes on the hillside turf course.
Del Mar summer stakes set
The stakes schedule for the Del Mar summer meeting, July 18 to Sept. 3, comprises 41 races with minimal changes from the 2017 season. The distances and conditions of four 2-year-old stakes are among the most prominent differences.
Two Grade 2 stakes for 2-yearolds – the Best Pal for both sexes and the Sorrento for fillies – have been shortened from 6 1/2 furlongs to six furlongs. The races are worth $200,000 each and lead to two Grade 1 races at seven furlongs on Labor Day weekend – the Del Mar Futurity and the Del Mar Debutante.
The conditions of two $100,000 stakes for California-bred 2-year-olds at six furlongs in late August – the I’m Smokin for both sexes and the Generous Portion for fillies – have been changed and are restricted to non-winners of a first-place purse of $50,000. The new condition will eliminate the winners of the first round of stakes for 2-year-old California-breds at the meeting – the Graduation for both sexes and the CTBA Stakes for fillies – run earlier that month.
Track officials are hoping the winners of the Graduation and CTBA stakes will start in opencompany stakes for 2-year-olds on turf or the main track at the end of the meeting.
Overall, stakes purses will be worth $7.3 million, a decline of $100,000 from last year. The Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on July 21 will be worth $200,000, down from $300,000 in 2017. Last year, the race had a purse boost because of the presence of Arrogate, who had won the Dubai World Cup in his previous start. Arrogate could only finish fourth in a field of five in the San Diego.
The $150,000 Solana Beach Stakes for California-bred fillies and mares will be run at a mile on turf. The race was run at 1 1/16 miles last year.
Violent Ridge to sit one out
Violent Ridge, who was second in the California Cup Derby for statebreds on Feb. 19, sustained a cut on a foreleg in a recent workout and will not start in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 7, trainer Hector Palma said on Thursday.
The injury required sutures to close the wound and will cost Violent Ridge three weeks of training, Palma said.
Violent Ridge, owned by BG Stables, won an allowance race for California-breds at a mile on March 11.
The $1 million Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles is expected to have a short field. The Grade 1 winners Bolt d’Oro and McKinzie lead a field that will probably include the Louisiana stakes winner Instilled Regard.