Baffert unveils 2026 plans for Breeders' Cup trainees
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ARCADIA, Calif. – Nysos and Splendora hope to parlay 2025 Breeders’ Cup victories into successful 2026 campaigns, while Seismic Beauty will seek redemption next year.
Early this week, trainer Bob Baffert outlined plans for his Breeders’ Cup runners, including Dirt Mile winner Nysos and Filly and Mare Sprint winner Splendora. Plans call for both to remain in training next season at age 5 along with Seismic Beauty, the beaten favorite in the Distaff.
It is not a surprise Nysos and Splendora will race next year. But when Seismic Beauty finished 11th in the Distaff, her future was uncertain. She sold for $2.5 million this week at the November Fasig-Tipton Sale to Randy and Jenny Boyd. Seismic Beauty is not retired from racing.
“She’s coming back,” Baffert confirmed Wednesday. “She needs a freshening. [Veterinarians] are going to go over her” before she resumes training and racing next year.
Favored at 6-5 in the Distaff, Seismic Beauty bobbled after the gates opened, got caught wide pressing the pace, and retreated.
“She came out, bobbled, and grabbed a quarter,” Baffert said. “When they do that, it shocks their system, it scares them, and they go a half-mile and [tire].”
Seismic Beauty won two graded stakes this year, including the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar, in which she earned a 110 Beyer Speed Figure. Seismic Beauty, previously owned by MyRacehorse and Peter Leidel, has won four races and $476,840 from eight starts.
Seismic Beauty will have company in the female dirt division, as Baffert reiterated that undefeated Grade 1 winner Cavalieri also will return for a 5-year-old campaign. The 5-for-5 filly missed the BC Distaff with an unspecified setback.
Nysos, who scored his first Grade 1 victory in the BC Dirt Mile, will race next year for the Baoma Corp. of Susan and Charles Chu.
“They want to run," Baffert said of the Chus. "They like the action."
“I’d like to take him to the Saudi Cup,” Baffert added, referring to the $20 million race on Feb. 14 at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh.
The Saudi Cup is a 1 1/8-mile race around one turn. Nysos has won six races and $1,118,500 from seven starts.
“He’s the closest I’ve had to American Pharoah,” Baffert said.
Citizen Bull, the 2024 BC Juvenile winner who set an extreme pace and finished a head behind stablemate Nysos in the Dirt Mile, has been retired to stud.
Splendora crushed the BC Filly and Mare Sprint by 4 3/4 lengths. Although owner Michael Talla considered selling her, Baffert said Talla “wants to bring her back, have some more fun with her.”
Splendora, who can run short and long, has five wins and four seconds from 10 starts. She has earned $860,800.
Hope Road, third as the even-money favorite in the Filly and Mare Sprint, is stabled at Santa Anita with Baffert. He said plans are pending for the 4-year-old Grade 1 winner. Richi, the Baffert-trained filly from Chile who finished fifth in the Filly and Mare Sprint, sold this week for $1,050,000. She will become a broodmare.
Imagination, Grade 2 winner and runner-up in the BC Sprint, will stay in training Baffert said. His campaign is to be determined. Nevada Beach, Grade 1 winner and seventh in the BC Classic, also will campaign in 2026.
Plans for Baffert-trained Breeders’ Cup 2-year-olds are unspecified. Explora and Bottle of Rouge finished second and sixth, respectively, in the Juvenile Fillies, while Brant and Litmus Test finished third and fourth in the Juvenile.
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