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Splendora Makes It Five Straight Wins In Beholder Mile

| 4:46 pm

By Stefanie Grimm

Last year’s GI Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Splendora (Audible) picked up her second Grade I Saturday, easily taking down the GI B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile at Santa Anita for Bob Baffert.

Saturday’s win, the mare’s fifth straight in a streak that began back at Del Mar last summer, was her second of her year after she returned victorious in the emotionally-poignant seven-furlong GII D. Wayne Lukas Stakes Feb. 7.

Having shown the ability to be versatile in her wins, the 1-9 favorite needed no help in this short field of five, breaking cleanly from the outside under regular pilot Juan Hernandez who played the start beautifully and let this mare roll to the front. Bless the Broken (Laoban), breaking just outside of the favorite, also showed speed and joined Splendora to go two-wide into the backstretch through the opening quarter in an easy :23.49.

The field stayed in tact at the half-mile pole but the favorite was always doing it easily even as she began to gradually pull away even before the final turn. To her credit, Bless the Broken, making her second start for new connections since bringing $950,000 at Fasig’s November Sale last year, refused to throw in the towel and tried another run at the leader at the furlong pole. But it was never a true threat as Splendora hit high gear with her ears up and a shake of the reins, powering into the final sixteenth with an increasing advantage under nothing but a hands and heels ride by Hernandez.

Bless the Broken was far and away the best of the rest at odds of 13-1 for Brad Cox while Aggie Ordonez’s Om N Joy (Om) put in a strong late run to pass Simply Joke (Practical Joke) for third.

“We’ll see how she comes out of this race,” said Baffert of his mare’s upcoming plans. “Mainly, we wanted to get the Grade I here. Nothing like a great run, especially winning this race. She’s just getting better and better. I haven’t mapped anything out for her next race. She’ll tell me when she’s ready to go next time, and we’ll bring her fresh. The main thing is to get her to the Breeder’s Cup get her that championship, which she should have gotten last year.”

“Bob was thinking about entering her in the Big ‘Cap, but a mile and a quarter, that is a tough ask for her,” winning co-owner Michael Talla added. “I’m not sure she can go that far, but we are going to head back east and take on the big girls back there and see what happens. We are looking at the (GI Derby City) Distaff on Derby Day and we are looking at the Madison (Keeneland) but the Madison is only four weeks away. I think we give her a couple months off and it’s up to Bob what he wants to do. The end goal is to get back into Breeders’ Cup and try to repeat and maybe we can win an Eclipse Award this year. We hope. But we want to see some of those good fillies back east. We want to see how good they are.”

Pedigree Note:
Splendora, a $125,000 Fasig-Tipton July yearling grad, is the only winner at the top level for GI Florida Derby winner Audible who has thus far sired a total of 10 individual stakes winner and three graded winners from four crops to race.

First dam Miss Freeze, herself a stakes winner in the Lynbrook at Belmont Park, has two winners from as many to race with 6-year-old Firsttimeinforever (Always Dreaming) joining Splendora under the produce tab. The Elkstone Group picked up Miss Freeze for just $45,000 carrying this Breeders’ Cup champion in utero at Keeneland November in 2020 but were unsuccessful in sending her back through the ring in 2023 when she failed to meet her reserve on a final bid of $37,000.

Miss Freeze has two unraced foals still in the pipeline: a 3-year-old Demarchelier (GB) colt named Oracle of Beaufort and a yearling filly by Tiz the Law. She is due this spring to National Treasure.

B. WAYNE HUGHES BEHOLDER MILE S. PRESENTED BY FANDUEL-GI, $300,000, Santa Anita, 3-7, 4yo/up, f/m, 1m, 1:35.16, ft.
1–SPLENDORA, 120, m, 5, by Audible
            1st Dam: Miss Freeze (SW), by Frost Giant
            2nd Dam: Reata’s Vixen, by Sligo Bay (Ire)
            3rd Dam: Top of the League, by Lite the Fuse
($125,000 Ylg ’22 FTKJUL). O-Boyd Racing and By Talla Racing,
LLC; B-The Elkstone Group LLC (MD); T-Bob Baffert; J-Juan J.
Hernandez. $180,000. Lifetime Record: 12-7-4-0, $1,160,800.
Werk Nick Rating: D+.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Bless the Broken, 120, f, 4, by Laoban
            1st Dam: The Nightingale, by Tapit
            2nd Dam: Storm Dixie, by Catienus
            3rd Dam: Golden Wave Band, by Dixieland Band
($950,000 3yo ’25 FTKNOV). O-Qatar Racing LLC and
Mountmellick Farm; B-Cypress Creek Equine, LLC (KY); T-Brad
Cox. $60,000.
3–Om N Joy, 122, f, 4, by Om
            1st Dam: Margie’s Minute, by Hard Spun
            2nd Dam: Halo Miss America, by Jolie’s Halo
            3rd Dam: Heart of America, by Northern Jove
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O-Connie S. Baker, Jerry Baker, Michael
Golovko and Terrence J. Scanlan; B-Jerry Baker & Connie Baker
(CA); T-Aggie Ordonez. $36,000.
Margins: 5 3/4, 7, 1 3/4. Odds: 0.10, 13.70, 8.30.
Also Ran: Simply Joking, Nafisa. Scratched: Dazzling Move. Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.