Splendora, Shred the Gnar should be the class of Fleur de Lis
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Splendora at age 5 through 13 starts looked the part of a crack sprinter-miler. In November, she won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint over seven furlongs at Del Mar.
In March, she won the Grade 1 Beholder, a two-turn Santa Anita mile, by almost six lengths. Then came the Shawnee Stakes on May 30 at Churchill Downs, where Splendora, rating sweetly, tracked a solid pace, cracked the pacesetter, and definitely was not stopping at the end of that 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 contest, winning by 2 3/4 lengths, the outcome never in doubt.
Splendora had not won beyond a mile before the Shawnee, and who’s to say that 1 1/8 miles will prove her undoing Saturday at Churchill in the Fleur de Lis Stakes? Shred the Gnar would like a word.
Beating a grinding Immersive at 1 1/16 miles was one thing, but handling Shred the Gnar over 1 1/8 miles sets the bar higher – especially with Splendora drawn on the fence and Shred the Gnar outside of her four Fleur de Lis foes.
Part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, the Grade 2, $500,000 Fleur de Lis offers its winner an automatic fees-paid entry into the 1 1/8-mile Distaff. That distance a year ago might have seemed beyond the scope of Splendora, a Bob Baffert-trained mare by Audible who has nearly never put a wrong foot forward since debuting in December 2023. She tried 1 1/8 once before, in the Santa Margarita Stakes about 13 months ago, finishing second while getting pasted by her stablemate, Seismic Beauty. Keep in mind that Seismic Beauty at that time might’ve been the fastest dirt-route mare on the planet, while Splendora had not yet ascended to her peak.
That came during the second half of 2025 and, but for one race, continued through the Shawnee. The even-money favorite May 2 in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff, Splendora finished fourth, beaten 10 lengths. But days before that start, Baffert had cautioned that the mare might not show her best. Splendora had contracted a mild illness that cost her a planned workout, and her trainer said he almost left her home at Santa Anita rather than shipping to Kentucky.
Splendora won the other six of her last seven starts, her Beyer Speed Figure pattern – removing the May 2 dud – an imposing one: 98, 100, 96, 97, 100.
On those figures, she’s a faster horse than Shred the Gnar, and while Shred the Gnar has looked like a true route horse since early in her career, she makes her first start Saturday at a distance beyond 1 1/16 miles. Her May 1 victory in the Grade 1 La Troienne went a long way toward erasing the only poor race of her career, a no-show sixth as the 6-5 favorite Feb. 14 in the Grade 3 Royal Delta. Layoffs have kept Shred the Gnar to just six starts, but she’s 3 for 3 at Churchill and has the type of strong-galloping profile that suggests added ground could raise her game.
“It never looks like she’s having any trouble getting to the line,” trainer Brian Lynch said. “We’re actually excited about stretching her out a little more. It looks like the weather could come into play.”
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No kidding. Worst-case scenario, the rain starts Friday morning in Louisville and doesn’t let up until Sunday morning. Shred the Gnar has never raced on a wet track, but then neither has Splendora.
“I’m not concerned. If she breaks well, it looks like she might be able to get comfortable,” Lynch said. “She’s getting older and stronger, starting to look like a beautiful mare.”
Should the two favorites hook up on an intemperate pace, Immersive, the 2-year-old champion of 2024, could come into play. She has not quite put together a complete race in her first two starts this year but looks like a far stronger horse than during a generally lost 2025 campaign.
“I’m hoping the mile and an eighth helps her,” trainer Brad Cox said. “She should have a target. She’s grown up – there’s plenty of her.”
In Just My Heels is the rank outsider in the quintet, but late-running Regaled does get 1 1/8 miles and has good wet-track form, but she comes off a dull performance June 6 in the Ogden Phipps at Saratoga.
On paper, the Fleur de Lis comes down to Splendora and Shred the Gnar, and that is how things should play out on the track.
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