HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Shred the Gnar is the least experienced member in a very talented field of older fillies and mares scheduled to square off Saturday in the $175,000 Royal Delta Stakes at Gulfstream Park. But she appears to be the fastest, and as such is likely to go postward the favorite in the Grade 3 fixture to be decided at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
Shred the Gnar has started just four times, winning her last three outings by a combined 16 1/4 lengths after dropping her career debut by a neck going six furlongs here one year earlier. The 4-year-old daughter of Into Mischief has used her abundant speed to run her competition off their feet in each of her wins, including a wire-to-wire, 2 3/4-length triumph in the Grade 3 Chilukki going a mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 15, for which she received a career-best 98 Beyer Speed Figure.
Shred the Gnar is trained by the sizzling-hot Brian Lynch, who will be seeking his ninth stakes win of the meet and fifth in the last three weeks.
“She’s always acted like a very special filly, we’ve tried to look after her properly, and hopefully there’s a big goal for her at the end of the year,” said Lynch, referring to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland on Oct. 31. “She’s had some minor hiccups along the way that needed some time. They’ve all resolved themselves, and I thought she ran a game comeback race in the Chilukki.”
Lynch said he gave Shred the Gnar a little extra time after her huge effort in the Chilukki and that he is very enthusiastic about the way she has trained up to the Royal Delta.
“She’s been working solid right along,” Lynch said. “She had her final work last Saturday and I couldn’t have been more pleased. She’ll run here, and if all goes well, we’ll bring her back to Kentucky for the La Troienne. I think the farther she runs the better, and in the end she’s a mile and one-eighth horse, even a mile and a quarter.”
Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. will try to counter the imposing-looking favorite with three fillies – Dazzling Move, who won this race a year ago, along with the up-and-coming Eunomia and multiple graded stakes-placed Claret Beret.
“At the moment I plan to run all three,” Joseph said Wednesday. “If I decided to take one of them out, it would probably be Dazzling Move.”
Dazzling Move rallied from just off the pace a year ago to upset the odds-on Grand Job by three-quarters of a length in the Royal Delta but has gone winless in eight subsequent starts. She will stretch back out in distance after finishing a non-threatening fifth in the seven-furlong, Grade 2 Inside Information just three weeks ago.
“She’s been searching for her best form of late but I thought her last race was a bit of a move in that direction,” said Joseph.
Eunomia was purchased privately and turned over to Joseph during the fall. She returned quick dividends for her new connections by winning an allowance race at Tampa Bay Downs as a prohibitive favorite on Dec. 13.
“We used the race at Tampa as a stepping-stone to this one, and if she can move forward off that effort, I see no reason why she can’t compete with these horses, although this race did come up extremely tough,” Joseph said.
Claret Beret has finished third in the Inside Information and Rampart in her last two starts but will be stretching out around two turns for the first time in nearly a year in the Royal Delta.
Like Shred the Gnar, Alpine Princess, Senza Parole, and Drexel Hill also come into the race off victories in their most recent starts.
Alpine Princess became a graded stakes winner when capturing the Grade 3 Falls City at Churchill for trainer Brad Cox on Nov. 27. Although that effort came at a mile and an eighth, she should have little trouble turning back to 1 1/16 miles on Saturday.
Senza Parole and Drexel Hill both opened their 4-year-old campaigns on a positive note. Senza Parole dominated high-priced optional-claiming and allowance foes by 7 1/4 lengths here Jan. 15. Drexel Hill exits an equally popular 1 1/4-length victory in the Wayward Lass Stakes last month at Tampa.
The Wayward Lass was just the second start for Drexel Hill since she rallied from last to finish second to Good Cheer in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks last spring at Churchill.
Nothing Like You was a multiple Grade 2 winner at 3 with trainer Bob Baffert but will launch her 2026 campaign with trainer Brendan Walsh after selling for $700,000 to her current owners, Twin Oaks Bloodstock, at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. She will enter the race idle since registering a very popular victory in the Dark Mirage Stakes in her final start for Baffert on Sept. 20 at Los Alamitos, ending a 17-month win drought.
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