Eclipse Champion Swiss Skydiver to make her 4-year-old debut in Saturday’s Beholder Mile
At 0h02, on March 12, 2021 • By SANTA ANITA
Last year’s Eclipse Champion 3-year-old Filly, Swiss Skydiver arrived at Santa Anita from her Gulfstream Park base on Tuesday and is poised to make her 4-year-old debut as she heads a field of eight older fillies and mares in Saturday’s Grade I, $300,000 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita.
Trained by Kenny McPeek and owned by Peter J. Callahan, Swiss Skydiver, who defeated males two starts back in the Grade I Preakness Stakes, has been idle since running seventh at odds of 2-1 in the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland Nov. 7.
Other prominent Beholder contenders include Simon Callaghan’s multiple graded stakes winning Harvest Moon and Bob Baffert’s scintillating recent allowance winner As Time Goes By.
Arguably the most incredible story in American racing last year, Swiss Skydiver ran at nine different tracks with six different jockeys in 10 starts from coast to coast, winning five, while running second twice and third once.
With all five of her wins coming in graded stakes, Swiss Skydiver was ultra impressive in her lone Santa Anita appearance, going gate to wire while taking the Grade II Santa Anita Oaks by four lengths on June 6 at odds of 3-5. Her first Grade I win came in Saratoga’s iconic Grade I Alabama Stakes on Aug. 15, as she pressed the early pace en route to a resounding 3 ½ length score at even money.
