Saturday’s seventh edition of the $300,000 Shawnee Stakes is one of six graded stakes races on Stephen Foster Preview Day at Churchill Downs. The Grade 2 race drew a field of seven older fillies and mares. Six of the entrants have at least one stakes win on their resume, including Breeders’ Cup winners Splendora (2025 PNC Bank Filly and Mare Sprint) and Immersive (2024 NetJets Juvenile Fillies). In recent years, Idiomatic in 2023 and Scylla in 2024 won the Shawnee before going on to win the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff in 2023 and 2025, respectively.
Here’s a look at the field from the rail out:
2025 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes winner Gin Gin drew the inside post for trainer Brendan Walsh with Luis Saez aboard for the fourth consecutive race. Following her first career Grade 1 victory in the Spinster in October at Keeneland, Gin Gin was eased in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff in November and finished a distant seventh in her 5-year-old debut in the Baird Doubledogdare Stakes at Keeneland April 17. Take Charge Omaha has a hefty morning line of 20-1 for trainer Matthew Sims and regular rider Mario Gutierrez. The Omaha Beach filly has two wins on the Churchill main track and finished seventh last time out in her graded stakes debut in the Grade 1 Fasig-Tipton La Troienne Stakes on Kentucky Oaks day. Miss Justify also exits the La Troienne, where she set the pace and settled for fourth in her first start for new trainer Walsh and a nearly 11-month layoff. The 6-year-old Justify mare has two wins from three starts at Churchill and will be ridden by Tyler Gaffalione. Majestic Oops broke her maiden in a county fair meet at Sacramento in 2022 and has since earned more than $1 million. She won her first graded stakes in the Grade 2 Azeri Stakes two starts back at Oaklawn Park in March, and the 6-year-old Majestic Harbor mare finished third last time out in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap. Majestic Oops will be making her first start for trainer Phil D’Amato with regular rider Francisco Arrieta retaining the mount. Last year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Splendora is the 6-5 morning line favorite for trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Flavien Prat. The 5-year-old Audible mare started the year with back-to-back graded stakes wins but most recently finished a distant fourth in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff Stakes Presented by Ford at Churchill on the Kentucky Derby undercard. Texas-bred Too Much Kiki will be racing outside of her home state for just the third time in her career on Saturday. The 5-year-old Too Much Bling mare has eight stakes wins, including seven in Texas, for trainer Bret Calhoun, and Jose Ortiz will be aboard for the first time. Immersive, the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner, drew the outside post for trainer Brad Cox with Irad Ortiz Jr. named to ride for the first time. The 4-year-old Nyquist filly has never finished worse than second in her career and will be making the second start of the year after finishing second in the Grade 3 Distaff Stakes at Aqueduct in April.
Analysis and Main Contenders:
It is not often you have a three-time Grade 1 winner who has never run out of the exacta as a 7-2 morning-line third choice, however Immersive is just that in the Shawnee. Undefeated as a 2-year-old with Grade 1 wins in the Spinaway, Darley Alcibiades, and Breeder’s Cup Juvenile Fillies, Immersive was diagnosed with bone bruising at the beginning of her 3-year-old campaign and sidelined from the Kentucky Oaks trail. She returned in June 2025 at Churchill and finished second by a neck after the 7 ½-month layoff in the Monomoy Girl Overnight Stakes. Immersive then returned to graded stakes competition in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks five weeks later at Saratoga and did finish second, however she was 15 ½ lengths behind winner Scottish Lassie. Immersive was able to find the winner’s circle for the first time since her injury in September with a two-length win in the Seneca Overnight Stakes at Churchill going this 1 1/16-mile distance. After an extended layoff, she returned more than 6 ½ months later for her 4-year-old debut in April in the Distaff Stakes, a seven-furlong dirt sprint for older fillies and mares. Immersive finished runner-up in the Distaff Stakes to Grammy Girl, who came back to win the Grade 3 Vagrancy Stakes in May. Immersive returns to her preferred 1 1/16 miles in the Shawnee, a distance at which she has produced three wins and a second in four starts. Cox is particularly effective with horses moving from dirt sprints to dirt routes over the past two years, winning at an incredible 38% from 161 starts when making this move. Immersive also will be making her second start off a layoff of 180 days or longer, something that Cox also excels at. Over the past five years, Cox wins at 30% from 155 starts with horses that last raced within 60 days and are making their second start after a six-month or longer layoff. Immersive has an opportunity to improve significantly in her second start after the layoff and has proved time and again she is a formidable contender in any situation, especially at this distance. Another positive is Irad Ortiz Jr., who has been riding lights out for some time, including a 33% win percentage aboard horses moving from dirt sprints to dirt routes. Cox and Ortiz Jr. are highly successful together at Churchill, winning at 30% in all races together at the Louisville track over the past five years with 29 wins from 98 starts. The morning-line odds are incredibly generous for Immersive, who worked a bullet five furlongs in 1:00.20 on May 15. With the presence of Splendora, Immersive is a potentially lucrative play who should be on every ticket.
At 20-1 odds on the morning line, Take Charge Omaha offers significant value with the ability to close powerfully late and complete the exacta at a nice price. Claimed for $50,000 as a 3-year-old last July at Ellis Park by trainer Sims, Take Charge Omaha has steadily improved with two wins at Churchill and one at Keeneland since the claim. Both of her wins at Churchill were around two turns by a combined winning margin of 8 ½ lengths. Take Charge Omaha started her 4-year-old campaign on New Year’s Day, finishing fourth in the Oaklawn Sports Overnight Stakes, but bounced back after a 101-day layoff and won an allowance-optional claiming race at Keeneland going 1 1/8 miles. Take Charge Omaha made her graded stakes debut May 1 at Churchill in the La Troienne, which had class rating of 108 with the entire field besides her having at least one stakes win on their resume. Despite finishing seventh, Take Charge Omaha was passing rivals around the final turn and went six wide into the stretch with a promising run, however at the three-sixteenths pole she was checked hard behind Drexel Hill and lost significant momentum in a race that was better than it looks on paper. Take Charge Omaha was able to find the winner’s circle with a clean trip in two previous starts at Churchill, and she has a wonderful opportunity to make a late rally when facing a smaller field in the Shawnee. While she is only entrant without a stakes win, Take Charge Omaha ranks first in the field by late pace, and her 103.5 rating is 15 points higher than Immersive and 19 better than Splendora. Over the past year, horses in graded stakes races on the dirt with the highest late pace rating have won at 26% and finishing 56% in the money from 288 starts. Going against proven graded stakes winners is no easy task, however with her ability to close and affinity for the Churchill main track and Shawnee distance, Take Charge Omaha is a formidable contender to run in the money and should offer tremendous value.
Splendora is the class of this field and a racemare who knows how to find the winner’s circle as she makes her ninth graded stakes appearance. A 5-year-old by Audible, Splendora came into her own at the age of 4 when starting a five-race winning streak that included three graded stakes, two of which were Grade 1 victories. The win streak started last July with a 3 ½-length win at the allowance-optional claiming level, followed by a 5 ½-length win in the Tranquility Lake Stakes for her first stakes win. Splendora then dominated the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in November by 4 ¾ lengths under Prat, who will be back in the irons for the Shawnee. The Breeders’ Cup clearly did not take too much out of Splendora as she returned in February to win the D. Wayne Lukas Stakes and then romped by 5 ¾ lengths a month later in the B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile Stakes Presented by FanDuel. With a slight layoff, Splendora shipped to Churchill to run in the Derby City Distaff where, despite her odds-on favoritism, she ran a distant fourth. While Splendora is an impressive filly through and through, all her wins have come at a mile or less and she seems to be a true sprinter. Splendora has made two starts at 1 1/16 miles or longer and finished a distant second in both attempts. She has only made one start outside of the state of California and faded at her preferred distance. Splendora is the class of the race no doubt, however she is up against it when stretching out to 1 1/16 miles at a track she seemingly does not favor.
The rest of the field (with best Equibase Speed Figure in a similar race): Gin Gin (110), Miss Justify (98), Majestic Oops (104), and Too Much Kiki (99).
Win Contenders in Preference Order:
Immersive
Take Charge Omaha
Splendora
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