Seismic Beauty returns to Santa Margarita, Boyds seek another graded win

Seismic Beauty goes back to Santa Anita with a lot more riding on her than a simple title defense. The defending Santa Margarita Stakes winner will try to show that last year’s breakthrough was no fluke, while new owners Randy and Jenny Boyd look for another graded stakes payoff from the mare they bought for $2.5 million.

That price tag was no accident. Boyd Racing secured Seismic Beauty at the Fasig-Tipton November sale after outlasting bidders that included Spendthrift, Stonestreet and Japanese interests, a market response that underscored how highly she was regarded. For the Boyds, who are still new to horse ownership and have made clear they want mares with breeding value as well as racing upside, Seismic Beauty has already become a centerpiece in a hurry.

Bob Baffert has made the most of her. He will send Seismic Beauty out in the $200,000 Grade 2 Santa Margarita on Saturday at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, seeking a fourth straight win in the race and a sixth overall. Baffert’s run has included Adare Manor in 2023 and 2024, then Seismic Beauty’s victory in 2025, and this year he will have the same mare back in the same race, drawn in post 3 with Juan Hernandez aboard in the five-horse field.

Seismic Beauty arrives with a resume that already stretches beyond one Santa Anita score. After winning the Santa Margarita last year when she was owned by MyRacehorse and Peter Leidel, she added the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 2, 2025 and earned an automatic Breeders’ Cup Distaff berth. Her trip in the Distaff on Nov. 1 at Del Mar never got on track, though, as an awkward start led to her being eased in the stretch while Scylla rolled home by 5 1/2 lengths. Baffert has since spelled her and said she has returned better than ever.

The challenge will not be soft, even with only five fillies and mares entered. Simply Joking brings the sharpest recent form after winning the Santa Maria Stakes by 6 3/4 lengths on April 19, 2026, and Om N Joy adds another layer after a quick turnaround from a turf attempt in the Fran’s Valentine. Still, the race runs through Seismic Beauty, and if she repeats the level that carried her through the Clement L. Hirsch, the Boyds’ rapid rise in the division could look less like a splash and more like a new power move.

The Santa Margarita itself has long served as a proving ground for older mares. First run in 1935, it has produced a fastest time of 1:47.00 by Lady’s Secret in 1986 and a record winning margin of 10 1/2 lengths by Paradise Woods in 2019. Seismic Beauty now returns to that history with a chance to defend her crown and push herself toward something bigger.