3/1 Contender Beholder, the second favorite, has been scratched. American Pharoah’s job just got a lot easier.
Champion mare Beholder will not run in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, trainer Richard Mandella announced Thursday, saying she has “irritated tissue in her lung” that caused bleeding after Thursday morning’s training.
“We cannot take the chance to run her under those circumstances,” Mandella said.
Beholder entered this week with six straight victories. But during a career in which she’s starred mostly on the west coast, the 5-year-old owned by Spendthrift Farm has suffered her two most-recent defeats outside of California.
“We can say we haven’t had a lot of luck shipping, that’s for sure,” Mandella said. “It’s been so different each time. She’s an aggressive mare and just was too worked up on the plane shipping here and got herself sick. It’s as simple as that.
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