History’s in the eye of Beholder

The 5-year-old mare bids for third straight Zenyatta Stakes win in Santa Anita opener.

Santa Anita’s 19-day autumn thoroughbred meeting begins Saturday with five Grade I Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win & You’re In” races on an 11-race card, topped by the 5-year-old mare Beholder seeking an unprecedented third consecutive win in the Zenyatta Stakes.

Each of the five stakes is worth $300,000 in purse money, but it’s the Zenyatta Stakes, named after the popular mare who won 19 of 20 races, that will generate lots of attention.

Beholder, trained by Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, has 10 wins in 11 lifetime starts at Santa Anita. She’s coming off an 81⁄4-length victory against the boys in the Pacific Classic last month at Del Mar and is being pointed toward a possible showdown against Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the $5million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.

“We’ll look at the Classic,” Mandella said earlier this week. “We could always change our mind and go in the Distaff, but it’s hard to resist a race like the Classic.”

Beholder is very much in the mix for horse of the year honors.

“She’s as good as she could be,” Mandella said.

The Zenyatta Stakes is 11⁄16 miles. The others stakes are the Front Runner for 2year-olds at 11⁄16 miles, the Awesome Again Stakes for 3year-olds and up at 11⁄8 miles, the Chandelier Stakes for 2year-old fillies at 11⁄16 miles and the Rodeo Drive Stakes for fillies and mares 3 years old and up at 11⁄4 miles on the turf.

Throughout the meeting, general admission and parking will be free on Thursdays and Fridays and will be free on weekends for those entering from the infield area.

First post Saturday will be 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m. for the remainder of the meeting that ends Oct. 25.

One jockey who won’t be riding is Flavien Prat, who is expected to be sidelined three months after a riding accident at Los Alamitos. He suffered fractured vertebrae and a punctured lung. He ranked second to Rafael Bejarano at the Del Mar summer meeting.

This will be the first time since 2011 that the Breeders’ Cup won’t be held at Santa Anita during its autumn meeting. It will return next year.