In her fourth start of 2026, Splendora earned her third graded stakes victory in dominant fashion, taking Churchill Downs' $250,000 Shawnee Stakes-G2 at one and one-sixteenth miles on Saturday, May 30.

Entering off a fourth-place finish in the Derby City Distaff Stakes-G1 on the Kentucky Derby undercard, which snapped a five-race win streak, the Bob Baffert-trained 5-year-old Audible mare broke nicely out of the gate under jockey Flavien Prat and sat behind Grade 1 winner Gin Gin, who set modest fractions of :23.41 and :47.07. Splendora took over at the three-eighths pole, kicked clear at the top of the stretch and kept going to win by two and three-quarters lengths over 2024 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies-G1 winner and Eclipse Award champion Immersive. The final time of 1:42.07 was a stakes record.

"She's a very talented filly who has won short and long, that just speaks to her class," said Prat, who guided her to victor in last year's Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint-G1. "I sat a pretty good trip today and when I asked her to go she kicked clear."

Making only her second start at the distance -- she finished second last year to stablemate Richi (Chi) in the Santa Maria Stakes-G2 -- she pushed her record to 14-8-4-0, with earnings of $1,357,700.

Baffert made a last minute decision to run Splendora after she completed a five-furlong breeze on May 24 as Churchill Downs was drying out from earlier rain. "I was debating on running her here or taking her to the Phipps (at Saratoga). It dried up here. She didn't like the mud too much last week and that's why I was debating on whether to run her or not. Today the real Splendora showed up."

Last year's Maryland-bred champion older female and champion sprinter, Splendora kicked off her 5-year-old season with scores in the seven-furlong D. Wayne Lukas Stakes-G2 in February and B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile Stakes-G1 a month later, both at Santa Anita, before making her first trip outside of California when shipped to Kentucky.

Bred by Stuart Grant's The Elkstone Group LLC, Splendora was purchased as a yearling for $125,000 by Michael Talla's By Talla Racing at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July sale i­n 2022. She now races for Randy Boyd's Boyd Racing LLC in partnership with Talla.

The second foal out of stakes winner Miss Freeze (by Frost Giant), Splendora is one of three winners from as many named foals for her dam.

Grant purchased Miss Freeze for $45,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale with Splendora in utero. When he sent Miss Freeze back through the Keeneland November sale in 2023, she returned a $37,000 RNA.

Miss Freeze's 2023 Demarchelier (GB) colt named Oracle of Beaufort is currently running for The Elkstone Group LLC. In his two recent starts over the Laurel turf, he broke his maiden on April 24 and finished fourth in a five-horse photo on May 10. The mare's first foal, the filly Firsttimeinforever (by Always Dreaming), is a four-time winner and earner of $211,345.

Miss Freeze failed to produce a foal in 2024, and has a Maryland-bred yearling filly by Tiz the Law. This year she delivered a National Treasure colt on March 20 in Kentucky.