Bob Baffert, the day after the Kentucky Oaks, seemed legitimately surprised that Explora lost the race. That’s the kind of regard Baffert has for Explora. Not thrilled with the prospect of going from the 1 1/8-mile Oaks to another 1 1/8-mile race, the Acorn at Saratoga, Baffert kept Explora at Churchill. If she runs to her trainer’s expectations, Explora ought to win the $225,000 Leslie’s Lady Stakes on Sunday. She cuts back from three route races to a seven-furlong contest around one turn, and that might prove to be a good thing. Six other 3-year-old fillies went into the Leslie’s Lady, but trainer Brad Cox said there’s a decent chance he scratches Sneaky Good. That still leaves Cox with Explora’s main danger, On Time Girl. And Cox likes his filly, too. “She’s a horse who we’d like to be able to think about the Test with,” Cox said, referring to the Grade 1 race this summer at Saratoga. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. On Time Girl has done next to nothing wrong – five wins, a second, and a third from her seven starts – and seven furlongs suits her perfectly, as she showed landing the seven-furlong, $700,000 Eight Belles on the Oaks undercard. Model of consistency, sure, but On Time Girl has yet to run especially fast. Her career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 85, earned in the Eight Belles, sits three points lower than the 88 Explora got making her career debut last summer. Apples to apples, no, but perhaps a useful guide to the relative baseline ability of both fillies. Moreover, On Time Girl got a good trip and a great pace setup in the closer-dominated Eight Belles. A Fine Chardonnay might have a chance, though she, too, does not appear to be a horse in Explora’s league. She has won at Churchill before and, in her most recent start, won the Grade 2 Beaumont at Keeneland, beating Sneaky Good by three-quarters of a length. If one subscribes to the notion On Time Girl rates a notch above Sneaky Good, and notes A Fine Chardonnay’s three-week May gap in published workouts, one might be disinclined to support the filly. Explora has looked elite from Day One and has only burnished credentials her last two starts. Second as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Explora easily won the seven-furlong Santa Ynez in her 3-year-old bow, then got speed-dueled into submission finishing second Feb. 8 in the one-mile Las Virgenes. Her vanquisher, Meaning, finished second in the Kentucky Oaks. Third in the Oaks, a neck ahead of Explora, came Counting Stars, who had loomed large at the furlong grounds in the $400,000 Honeybee at Oaklawn in February before Explora swatted her away. Baffert intended to prep Explora for the Oaks in the Fantasy Stakes, but an untimely illness kept her from running. Thus, Explora exited a two-month layoff in the Oaks, where she broke from the rail, set a very strong pace that burned out everyone else close to it, and stayed on gamely, beaten just 2 1/2 lengths. Probably, nobody beats her Sunday at Churchill. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.