The fields for the 14 races that comprise the Breeders’ Cup World Championships really begin to come into focus in summer and fall and this regular feature will offer a snapshot profile of one of the previous weekend’s standout stars.

This week the choice was fairly easy. Tamara, a daughter of champion Beholder, delivered a dominant 6 ¾-length runaway victory in the $303,500 FanDuel Racing Del Mar Debutante Stakes Sept. 9 at Del Mar and stepped forward as a leading contender for the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Nov. 3 at Santa Anita Park.

These blogs are intended to provide an introduction to casual fans to some of the key Breeders’ Cup contenders and also to provide some analysis for more dedicated racing fans on how the subject might perform on World Championships weekend based on multiple factors. Because appealing to casual fans is essential there typically is not a ton of pedigree discussion, but in this case it’s a main component of the story and worth leading off with.

Beholder won three Breeders’ Cup races during her career for Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella – the Juvenile Fillies in 2012 and the Distaff in 2013 and 2016 – while amassing 18 wins in 26 starts and more than $6.1 million in purse earnings. Beholder was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2022 in her first year of eligibility.

In her second career as a broodmare for owner-breeder Spendthrift Farm, Beholder has produced four foals of racing age, including Teena Ella, a graded stakes winner earlier this year at Santa Anita Park. Tamara is Beholder’s fourth starter and her win by 6 ¼ lengths in the Sept. 9 Del Mar Debutante was spectacular and evoked memories of her superstar mother.

“She’s been doing things in her training that 2-year-olds aren’t supposed to do,” said her rider Mike Smith, also a Hall of Famer. “She’s really special. She’s like her mother.”

“It gave me chills,” Mandella said in the winner’s circle.

Tamara is by Spendthrift stallion Bolt d’Oro, who won the Grade 1 Frontrunner Stakes and Del Mar Futurity as a 2-year-old in 2017, and the last point I will make about pedigree is that Beholder not only was a brilliant racemare but she also is a half-sibling (same dam [mother], different sire [father]) to both Grade 1 winner and leading sire Into Mischief and 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Mendelssohn (who is off to a solid start as a young sire).

It’s easy to see where Tamara’s talent comes from, but she has proved her ability on the racetrack in two starts. The bay filly stumbled noticeably at the start of her career debut Aug. 19 at Del Mar from the inside post in 10-horse field and was near the back of the field a few jumps into the race. That is quite a bit for a first-time starter to overcome but she moved up from the inside to stalk the pace and waited for Smith’s cue behind rivals on the turn. When Smith asked Tamara to accelerate, she responded immediately and moved alongside pacesetting favorite Hope Road, shifted leads on cue in the stretch like a professional, and pulled away to win by 2 ¼ lengths.

All smiles for Smith after a dazzling win. (BENOIT photo)

Tamara earned a 95 Equibase Speed Figure and an 80 Beyer Speed Figure, indicating the win impressed speed-figure makers. She was even better in the Del Mar Debutante as she showed early speed and took over with little urging, coasting to a runaway win over 11 overmatched opponents under a hand ride from Smith in 1:22.42 for seven-eighths of a mile.

“I just held on today,” Smith said. “I didn’t want to fall off. She was doing it all herself.”

Said jockey Umberto Rispoli, who was aboard seventh-place finisher Pushiness, the pacesetter she surged past on the turn: “I’ve been here in California for four years. I have never seen anything like that.”

Tamara improved her Equibase Speed Figure to a 97 and her Beyer figure to a 91 in the Del Mar Debutante.

“I expected her to run good but that was a little beyond,” Mandella said. “Watching it, [Smith] had so much horse he didn’t want to restrict her. He just had her do what she wanted to do.”

Clearly there is much to like about Tamara, who could just train up to the Juvenile Fillies or race in the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes Oct. 7 at Santa Anita Park, but she has a couple of additional positives as it pertains to her Breeders’ Cup chances:

• Her speed figures indicate she probably would only need to take a small step forward in the 1 1/16-mile race to win and might be fast enough on paper already. Her career-top 97 Equibase Speed Figure would have been good enough to win six of the last 15 editions of the Juvenile Fillies and is just behind the median 99 winning Equibase Speed Figure and 98.1 average winning figure since 2008.
• The tactical speed Tamara showed in the Del Mar Debutante is a key component in a Juvenile Fillies winner, especially at Santa Anita Park. Three of the last five Juvenile Fillies first-place finishers (She’s a Tiger was disqualified) when Santa Anita hosted set the pace, one pressed the pace, and the other (British Idiom in 2019) was 5 ¾ lengths back after a half-mile. Seven of the last 11 winners overall at any venue were third or better after a half-mile and within 2 ½ lengths of the lead, eight if you count She’s a Tiger.
• Hall of Famer Mandella has won the Juvenile Fillies three times, almost perfectly spaced a decade apart: Phone Chatter (1993), Halfbridled (2003), and Beholder (2012). All three of those came at Santa Anita and he’s one year overdue for another Juvenile Fillies win.
• Speaking of Breeders’ Cup success at Santa Anita, Mandella owns nine career Breeders’ Cup wins from 48 starters (18.75%). That is an impressive strike rate, but West Coast-based Mandella has traditionally loved home cooking at the Breeders’ Cup as all nine of his wins have come at Santa Anita Park, host of this year’s World Championships. In fact, he has won with nine of 24 Breeders’ Cup starters at Santa Anita for a remarkable 37.5% win rate.