None of the first 32 winners of the Honeybee Stakes won a Kentucky Oaks – but times have changed.
Two of the last six Oaks winners, Shedaresthedevil in 2020 and Secret Oath in 2022, also won the Honeybee, and Sunday’s renewal at Oaklawn is abuzz with Oaks hopes.
A 1 1/16-mile Grade 3 worth $750,000, the Honeybee drew 10 entrants, and its winner will almost certainly earn sufficient qualifying points, 50, to make the Oaks field, which is capped at 14 runners. The second- through fifth-place Honeybee finishers get 25, 15, 10, and five Oaks qualifying points.
Bob Baffert has trained three Kentucky Oaks winners, and Explora could be favored to give him his first Honeybee winner. Listed at 7-5 on the track’s morning line, Explora gets a rider switch to Flavien Prat after fading to second on Feb. 8 as the 4-5 chalk in the one-mile Las Virgenes at Santa Anita.
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Explora, who “couldn’t be training better,” Baffert said, has mixed wins and runner-up finishes through her six-start career, checking in second in the 1 1/16-mile Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies after capturing the Oak Leaf over the same distance. The filly started her 3-year-old campaign coasting home in the seven-furlong Santa Ynez, and while some might question her future as a true route horse, Baffert believes in Explora.
“She got in a ridiculous speed duel last time. She’s still learning,” Baffert said. “I expect a great effort Sunday if she doesn’t go too fast early.”
Trainer Mark Casse said he intends to run both of his Honeybee entrants, Counting Stars and Search Party. Counting Stars romped Dec. 27 at Oaklawn in the Year’s End Stakes but was eased Feb. 6 as the odds-on favorite in the Martha Washington. Counting Stars, who ran a similarly dismal race last fall at Keeneland, had an ideal tracking spot going into the turn before stopping.
“At the half-mile pole, I thought she would gallop, and that’s what she did – gallop,” Casse said. “She did the same thing at Keeneland. She came out of it fine and is training super. What else do I do but run her?”
While Counting Stars flopped, Casse won the Martha Washington with Search Party, who had one seriously troubled trip and another mild one last fall at Churchill before an open-lengths Oaklawn maiden win that earned her the Martha Washington start. Search Party hasn’t breezed since that race, and Casse said he flew into Arkansas from Florida this week still considering passing on Sunday’s contest and awaiting the Fantasy next month.
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“From what I saw this morning, all systems are go,” Casse said Friday. “I think Search Party looks even better today than she did when she won last time. She’s a lighter filly, but she’s starting to fill into her frame.”
If one accords Search Party a chance, Newtown Pike would be worth a play at a longer price. While Search Party pulled a perfect ground-saving trip in the Martha Washington, Newtown Pike, after racing greenly down the backstretch, lost considerable ground around the far turn. She came with a sustained wide run and missed Search Party by a neck.
“She’s still pretty green around other horses, and she didn’t really know what she was doing out there last time,” trainer Lindsay Schultz said. “She had a good work the other day. We worked her in behind a couple decent horses and let her come up to them and gallop out past them, and she handled that well.”
Taken by the Wind has not run fast enough in her three starts to win the Honeybee, but she nonetheless comes into Sunday’s contest unbeaten. Taken by the Wind got off the vet’s list in time to make her 3-year-old bow Jan. 17 in the Silverbulletday at Fair Grounds, turning back a challenge from Luv Your Neighbor, who returned Feb. 14 with a good second behind Bella Ballerina, a leading Oaks hope, in the Rachel Alexandra.
“She definitely will improve Sunday,” trainer Kenny McPeek said. “I thought she was about 80 percent last time. You couldn’t ask her to look better coming into this race.”
Knickleandime could prove a pace foil for Explora. Brad Cox ships Sneaky Good from Florida off a sneaky good showing Jan. 31 in the Forward Gal.
Whoever comes out atop this Honeybee might not win the Kentucky Oaks, but they are likely to be in it.
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