The great racemare Beholder is already in the Hall of Fame with an impressive set of historic achievements as a four-time Eclipse champion and one of two horses to win three Breeders' Cup races, the other being fellow Hall of Famer Goldikova.
At this year's Breeders' Cup, Beholder's daughter Tamara—already a grade 1-winning juvenile—has a chance to embellish her own CV and add to her dam's illustrious legacy when she runs in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) Nov. 1 at Del Mar. With a Tamara win, Beholder would become the fifth mare to win a Breeders' Cup race and produce a Breeders' Cup winner.
Hall of Famer Personal Ensign, winner of the 1988 Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1), was the first to achieve the feat when her daughter My Flag won the 1995 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1). My Flag repeated the honor by producing 2002 Juvenile Fillies winner Storm Flag Flying.
Hollywood Wildcat, winner of the 1993 Distaff, produced 2000 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) winner War Chant. And Shared Account, winner of the 2010 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T), was the most recent to join this distinguished club when her daughter Sharing won the 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T).
Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella trained Beholder for owner Spendthrift Farm and also trains Tamara.
"I'd like to take credit that I trained Beholder to be such a good broodmare, but I don't think anybody would go for that," Mandella said.
Tamara, a lightly raced 4-year-old filly by Bolt d'Oro , started her career spectacularly with a juvenile debut win at Del Mar in 2023. Starting from the rail, she stumbled at the start, rushed up behind the front-runners, then waited and showed a push-button response when rider Mike Smith asked her to go after the leader Hope Road—also now a grade 1 winner with whom she will renew acquaintances Saturday.
Then came a spectacular performance in the 2023 Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1) in which Tamara pressed fractions of :21.85 and :44.45 and drew off to win by 6 3/4 lengths, running 7 furlongs in 1:22.41.
Tamara went favored at 4-5 in that year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita Park but finished seventh.
"Her 2-year-old Breeders' Cup is a throw-out because she fractured a splint bone in her hind leg that day," Mandella said.
Tamara has made only two starts since, and they have been nearly a year apart. She ran second in an allowance optional claimer Nov. 15, 2024, at Del Mar and didn't run again until Oct. 4 of this year when she won the Chillingworth Stakes (G3) by 3 3/4 lengths at Santa Anita. In the Chillingworth, Tamara looked like she was back. She pressed a :44.06 half-mile and finished 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.21 under minimal hand urging from Smith.
These last two years required some patience from Mandella and Spendthrift owners Eric and Tamara Gustavson.
"She never had anything serious wrong with her. She just had little problems, and there was no reason to think she couldn't come back as good as ever," Mandella said. "As good as she was as a 2-year-old, that left us a lot to dream about.
"You can always have another broodmare. I needed a racehorse, and the owners were sympathetic."
Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey said the team discussed it and ultimately the Gustavsons made the call to keep Tamara in training.
"One of the little setbacks she had, it was fairly close to the beginning of breeding season, and it became pretty tempting to say, 'She's already a grade 1 winner at 2, let's go ahead and breed her,'" Toffey said. "But it was something Eric, Tammy, and I talked about. Fillies of this talent don't come along very often. The prognosis of her returning was still very very good. It was just a matter of giving her the time."
The Spendthrift team showed a lot of confidence in Tamara and stablemate Kopion by pre-entering them in both the Filly and Mare Sprint and the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1), ultimately deciding to try to win both races by sending Kopion to open company, leaving Tamara the 7-2 second choice on the morning line behind Sweet Azteca against fillies and mares.
"She acts like the Chillingworth did her good," Mandella said Oct. 21, three days after Tamara worked 5 furlongs in 1:01 at Santa Anita. "I think she's in her best shape. And I think she stacks up against anybody sprinting."
Mandella said Beholder was built more like a sprinter when she was 2 but developed into a classic horse at age 3 and beyond. He said Tamara still has a relatively stocky build at age 4.
"Tamara looks more like a sprinter than anything else, but we haven't tried going further, so I can't say she can't do it," Mandella said, perhaps leaving the door open for something beyond Saturday.
There also are some behavioral differences between mom and daughter.
"Beholder was very sweet 90% of the time and a monster 10% of the time. And thank God the monster part came out in her running, because she could be very difficult to handle," Mandella said. "Tamara has been much sweeter than her mother.
"I've got pictures on my wall that remind me of Beholder every day. Every trainer should be lucky enough to have a horse like her. But the big man upstairs was kinda careful how many he gave out."
From five foals of racing age, Beholder also has produced grade 3 winner Teena Ella, by War Front . In the pipeline she has a yearling filly by champion male sprinter Jackie's Warrior and a weanling colt by top sire Gun Runner .
The potential for further greatness as a producer is certainly there. Beholder is out of the stakes-winning Tricky Creek mare and 2016 Broodmare of the Year Leslie's Lady, making her a half sister to 2017 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) winner and sire Mendelssohn and six-time leading general sire Into Mischief .
"The great irony is that when Into Mischief came to stud at Spendthrift (in 2009), the knock on him was the lack of pedigree. Neither Beholder nor Mendelssohn existed yet," Toffey said. "It's pretty remarkable the way this family has unfolded.
"It will certainly be interesting to see how it plays out over future generations."
