Splendora Dominates G1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita for Baffert

Splendora produced a commanding Grade 1 victory in the B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile at Santa Anita Park, extending her winning streak to five and pushing her career earnings past the $1 million mark. The 5-year-old mare by Audible delivered for trainer Bob Baffert in the one-mile, $300,000 feature on March 7, 2026.

The win completed a rapid start to Splendora’s 2026 campaign. She opened the year with a victory in the GII D. Wayne Lukas Stakes at seven furlongs on Feb. 7 at Santa Anita, and entered the Beholder with a prior record of 11 starts: 6 wins, 4 seconds, 0 thirds and $980,800 in earnings. Horseracingnation listed her morning line 4-5 and a rating of 7.87 going into the race, while pre-race previews labeled her a likely heavy favorite.

Splendora raced for owner By Talla Racing in pre-race materials, though a social-media post after the race credited the victory to “owners By Talla Racing and Boyd.” The mare was trained by Bob Baffert and listed to be ridden by Juan Hernandez, who had been aboard in the Lukas. The official race chart will confirm the jockey of record and update Splendora’s exact post-race bankroll; those official numbers were not included in the supplied race-day excerpts.

The Beholder Mile drew a compact, stakes-caliber field of six older fillies and mares. The published entries and riders with weights were: Om N Joy, Kent Desormeaux, 122; Simply Joking, Emisael Jaramillo, 120; Dazzling Move, Tyler Gaffalione, 120; Splendora, Juan Hernandez, 120; Bless the Broken, Florent Geroux, 120; and Nafisa, Kazushi Kimura, 122. Paulick Report and PastTheWire noted Bless the Broken and Dazzling Move as eastern invaders, and listed Nafisa as the GIII La Canada winner on Jan. 24 at Santa Anita for Zedan Racing Stables and trained in a Baffert barn entry.

A discrepancy in race-day coverage deserves noting: a PastTheWire photo caption credits Jenny Doyle and reads “Flavien Prat celebrates Splendora’s victory,” while pre- and post-race text in multiple outlets identifies Juan Hernandez as Splendora’s rider for the Beholder and the Lukas. The supplied material does not reconcile that difference between the photo caption and the jockey listings.

Missing from the supplied reports were Splendora’s official finishing time, margin of victory, final pari-mutuel payoffs and the exact updated lifetime-earnings figure; those items should appear on the official Equibase chart and in the track’s race-day statistics. For now, the facts on record are clear: a 5-year-old by Audible trained by Bob Baffert won the G1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita on March 7, 2026, pushed her streak to five straight, and pushed her career earnings beyond $1 million, confirming her status as one of the leading older fillies and mares in the early 2026 season.