Trainer Ken McPeek eyes his second straight victory in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile on March 5 at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., this time with Envoutante, a daughter of Uncle Mo that will make her 5-year-old debut in a race named for the four-time Eclipse Award champion and three-time Breeders' Cup winner trained by Hall of Fame member Richard Mandella.
McPeek won last year's Beholder with Swiss Skydiver on March 13. In 2020, Swiss Skydiver captured the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks. A daughter of Daredevil, Swiss Skydiver was named Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old filly of 2020, defeating males in the Preakness that year.
“Envoutante is going to work next Friday or Saturday, and we're working on travel logistics, but right now the plan is to bring her,” McPeek said by phone Sunday morning after saddling 2-1 favorite Smile Happy to a second-place finish behind Epicenter in Saturday's Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at the Fair Grounds. “We're also working on a rider.”
In her most recent race, for the second straight year, Envoutante (freely translated from French it's “enchanting” as in an enchanting smile) won the 1 1/8-mile Grade 2 Falls City Stakes last Nov. 25 at Churchill Downs, prompting the pace and drawing off to win by six lengths “geared down.”
Owned by Walking L Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm, Envoutante is out of the stakes-winning Bluegrass Cat mare Enchante and has a 6-2-4 record from 16 starts with earnings of $931,658.
The Beholder offers $500,000 in purse money with $300,000 guaranteed to the winner and $100,000 to the runner-up, so even a second-place finish would make Envoutante a millionaire.
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