Pegram, Watson and Weitman’s Explora (Blame) stayed close throughout and once in front, the even-money choice proved too tough to run down as she held off Counting Stars to take Sunday’s GIII Honeybee Stakes at Oaklawn Park.With the favorite letting loose in the stretch, Counting Stars did her best to narrow the gap, but she came up a 3/4-length short of Explora at the wire. Sneaky Good held on for third.
A first-out winner at Del Mar last summer, she finished runner-up in the GI Del Mar Debutante before annexing the GII Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita. Second in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar on Oct. 31, the dark bay was an impressive 5 1/4-length winner of the Santa Ynez Stakes on Jan. 10. In her most recent start, she was runner-up in Santa Anita’s one-mile Las Virgenes Stakes on Feb. 8.
“Bobby [Baffert] told us when he bought her [Explora] that he thought she was special,” said Pegram. “You know the farther she goes, the better. She was finally able to stretch her legs today and she did her job. We knew after her debut she was special and she was in the right place with the right guy on her back and we got the money.”
Explora, a $22,000 yearling purchase at Keeneland September, flourished into a $350,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic juvenile buy for the well-established partnership of Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman.