Splendora, Usha Post Strong Works as Baffert Stable Builds Spring Momentum

Splendora arrived at Sunday morning's training tab carrying the weight of a five-race winning streak, and her four-furlong breeze at Santa Anita did nothing to slow the conversation. The Audible mare clocked 48.4 seconds over the distance, ranking 30th among 81 recorded works at the distance that morning, a number that speaks less to flash than to methodical preparation from the Bob Baffert barn.

The context matters. Splendora is not a horse being introduced to the spotlight. She won the 2025 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint and followed that with the 2026 B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile (G1) at Santa Anita in her most recent start, stretching her unbeaten run to five and cementing her standing as Southern California's most dominant older filly or mare in training. A 48.4 four-furlong move in that context reads as a horse being kept sharp and pointed, not pushed.

Baffert's stablemate Usha also appeared in Sunday's published tab with a prominent work of her own, reinforcing a theme that has been building across the spring: the barn is maintaining momentum across multiple graded horses simultaneously. The published works also captured activity from other nationally recognized runners. Test Score, by Lookin At Lucky, turned in a Santa Anita drill, while British Isles, by Justify, logged a work at Keeneland. Gold Phoenix, by Belardo, was also among those working at Santa Anita, giving handicappers a broad cross-section of graded horses to assess heading into the spring stakes calendar.

Published timed works carry real weight in the weeks before major stakes entries. The raw time alone rarely tells the full story; the ranking within that morning's work tab gives it scale. Splendora's 48.4, placed 30th of 81 at the distance, is consistent with a horse being brought along deliberately rather than asked to post eye-catching fractions before a target race is locked in. Trainers use that ambiguity deliberately, signaling readiness without surrendering specifics.

For Southern California bettors and handicappers, Sunday's tab fed ongoing speculation about Splendora's next assignment. Her Beholder Mile win demonstrated that she has not only retained the speed that made her a Breeders' Cup champion but added the ability to excel at a mile, widening the range of possible spring and summer targets. That versatility, paired with five consecutive victories, makes each published work a piece of evidence in an ongoing argument about where she belongs in the distaff hierarchy.

With the spring stakes schedule taking shape, the Saturday-to-Sunday window of public workouts will continue drawing scrutiny. For the Baffert string, Sunday's session confirmed that both Splendora and Usha remain on track, and for a mare with a résumé already built at the highest level, staying on track is often the most significant headline of all.