Explora Holds Off Counting Stars, Wins Honeybee, Earns 50 Kentucky Oaks Points

Explora, trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert and ridden by Flavien Prat, rallied past the pacesetter and held off Mark E. Casse’s Counting Stars to win the Grade 3, $750,000 Honeybee Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 1, earning 50 Kentucky Oaks points and vaulting to the top of the Oaks leaderboard with 95 points.

Explora settled in comfortably behind pacesetter Knickleandime, which set opening fractions of :23.45 and :47.70 through the half mile. Explora made her move coming into the top of the stretch and “held off a late challenge by Counting Stars to win by 3/4 lengths,” covering 1 1/16 miles in a final time of 1:43.52. Explora paid $4.00 to win.

The top four saw Explora first for trainer Bob Baffert with Flavien Prat aboard, Counting Stars second for trainer Mark E. Casse, Sneaky Good third for trainer Brad Cox and Search Party fourth for Mark Casse. Morning-line listings before the race had Explora 7-5 and Taken by the Wind 5-2; Tracksideview’s complete 10-horse program listed Sneaky Good with Irad Ortiz Jr. and Search Party with Cristian Torres among the entries.

Explora is a 3-year-old dark bay or brown filly by Blame out of Collections Choice by Bernardini, bred in Kentucky by Mesingw Farms. Her sales history is striking: sold for $22,000 as a yearling to Rusty Roberts at Keeneland in 2024, then purchased by Michael Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman for $350,000 at the 2025 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. The owners are referred to as “the Three Amigos.” Explora had not finished worse than second in seven starts prior to the Honeybee, including a 5 1/4-length victory in the Santa Ynez Stakes on Jan. 10, a second-place finish to Meaning in the Feb. 8 Las Virgenes at Santa Anita, a Grade 2 Oak Leaf win on Oct. 4 and a runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Oct. 31.

Counting Stars returned to form after a troubling effort in the Martha Washington Stakes, where she was eased and finished last after being the favorite. Trainer Mark Casse had defended the filly before the Honeybee, saying, “I think if she runs her race, they have to beat her. Everything I’ve seen out of her, when she shows up, tells me she’s a good horse.” Truenicks reported Counting Stars walked off the Martha Washington without injury and cooled out normally at the barn. Casse was also “50-50” on whether Search Party would run in the Honeybee or wait for the Fantasy Stakes on March 27.

The Honeybee’s $750,000 purse was a record for the race in 2026, up from $500,000 previously, and the event served as Oaklawn’s second of three qualifying races on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks. The race awarded a total of 105 Oaks points to the top five finishers distributed 50-25-15-10-5, and Explora’s 50-point haul moved her to 95 points as the leader with the Oaks drive now unfolding through Oaklawn’s series and upcoming preps such as the March 27 Fantasy Stakes. Bob Baffert’s victory with Explora was notable as his first Honeybee starter amid an Oaklawn resume that includes 20 wins in the track’s four-race series and 41 career victories in Hot Springs.