Shred the Gnar holds off One Magic Philly in Chilukki Stakes
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Shred the Gnar came into the Chilukki Stakes on Saturday at Churchill Downs with two flashy wins from three starts, clearly a talent, but unraced since May 2 and a filly still with something to prove. She proved it.
Setting the pace under Luis Saez, Shred the Gnar repelled a sustained challenge from One Magic Philly, the best horse she’s yet faced, and won the Grade 3, $300,000 Chilukki by 2 3/4 lengths.
She was going away, too, with second-choice One Magic Philly a spent force at a one-turn-mile distance probably a tick farther than she truly wants to run, yet still one length clear of 6-5 favorite Ragtime, who never came close to threatening the winner.
Credit to Brian Lynch, who trains Shred the Gnar for Travis Boersman’s Flying Dutchmen and had the filly fine-tuned for her first start in more than six months. But Shred the Gnar when she went to the sidelines – scratched after being entered in the June 6 Acorn Stakes – looked like she just might be the best middle-distance 3-year-old dirt filly in the land. The Chilukki provided another data point in that direction, though Nitrogen, another member of the class, finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
With Saez, you know what you’re going to get with a horse like Shred the Gnar, who has speed and drew inside the other potential pace, and, as one would have expected, Saez had no issue letting his mount run out to the lead. Racing aggressively, but not overly so, Shred the Gnar went a quarter-mile in 22.97 and a half in 45.48, a very legitimate tempo, with One Magic Philly just behind and outside her. One Magic Philly had raced in October at Keeneland, giving her a recency edge on Shred the Gnar, and had faced considerably better competition throughout her career, and you could see her jockey, Tyler Gaffalione, plotting a plan to put the untested layoff horse to the sword.
Gaffalione probed somewhat gently going to the half-mile pole, Shred the Gnar quickening just enough to maintain a clear lead, then made a more serious bid going to the quarter pole. No dice. Shred the Gnar never let One Magic Philly come abreast, and off three quarters in 1:09.26, got her mile over a fast track in 1:34.84. She paid $7.20 as the third choice in a field reduced to six after the scratch of Runaway Diva.
Ragtime, racing with blinkers on for the first time in three starts, ran like a filly who had gone a little beyond her best after a strong summer campaign. Racing last of six, though never more than five lengths off the pace, Ragtime’s bid lopped 1 1/2 lengths off the advantage One Magic Philly held at the stretch call but still lacked the spark she’d shown earlier this year.
Shred the Gnar had stretched out for the first time to two turns in the last start before her layoff, and Lynch earlier this week said he strongly believed Shred the Gnar to be a two-turn horse. By Into Mischief out of Aspen Light, by Bernardini, she might well be, and if their horse can stick to a more consistent racing schedule, connections could have an exciting 2026 season.
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