Splendora gives Baffert first Molly Pitcher S. (G2) win

Bob Baffert’s Breeders’ Cup winner Splendora proved too classy for the field in Saturday’s $500,000 Molly Pitcher S. (G2), rolling to a 5 ½-length victory over a track that was labeled fast, but was sealed due to rain that fell just before the race.

“She does not like mud. I’m in Kentucky and I almost didn’t run her because of the mud,” said  Baffert after the race. “I was waiting for that break. The track was so beautiful earlier and I was hoping it wouldn’t rain, and then the rain came. It wasn’t really muddy. But she does not like to get her feet wet. She’s funny about that.”

Despite her distaste for the surface, Splendora was brilliant from the start of the 1 1/16-mile contest. She went right to the front and maintained a 1 ½-length lead through the first half-mile, then began to widen from there. All alone in the stretch, she stopped the timer in 1:44.75 and earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure.

Winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) and this year’s Beholder Mile (G1), Splendora is 9-4-0 in 15 starts and has earned $1,657,700 for owners Boyd Racing LLC (Randy Boyd) and By Talla Racing LLC.

“We’re just going play it by ear,” said Baffert when asked about returning to the Breeders’ Cup. “She’ll come back to Churchill Downs and we’ll wait and see. It could be a race at Saratoga, or maybe Keeneland. I haven’t decided yet.”