Las Virgenes showdown: Super Corredora, Explora renew rivalry from Breeders’ Cup

Feb 05, 2026 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Super Corredora upset Explora in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar (Photo by Horsephotos.com)

About an hour before the big game on Sunday, there’s a different kind of super showdown between leading Kentucky Oaks (G1) contenders at Santa Anita.

The top two from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) – upset winner Super Corredora and beaten favorite Explora – will renew rivalry in the $100,000 Las Virgenes S. Will Explora gain revenge in their grudge match, or will Super Corredora back up her championship-clinching victory?

Tune into TwinSpires at 5:30 p.m. ET on Sunday to watch and wager!

The Bob Baffert-trained Explora has gone off as the favorite every time she’s run. After a runner-up effort in the Del Mar Debutante (G1), she demolished the field in the Oak Leaf (G2) at Santa Anita. Her improvement in the Oak Leaf was the result of two factors: the step up in distance to 1 1/16 miles and taking the blinkers off to help her settle early.

Explora was expected to deliver a similar performance in the Breeders’ Cup over the same 1 1/16-mile trip at Del Mar, but she couldn’t catch the surprising Super Corredora.

Super Corredora took a leap forward once she had the opportunity to try longer races. The daughter of Hall of Famer Gun Runner crushed a one-mile maiden at Santa Anita on Oct. 11. Trainer John Sadler then decided to give Super Corredora her chance in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and she seized it in front-running fashion as an 8-1 shot.

Voted champion two-year-old filly on the strength of that performance, Super Corredora returns to action here. She will try to extend her winning streak to three in the Las Virgenes, which is contested over the same mile circuit as her Santa Anita maiden romp.

Explora has since come back to flaunt her superiority in the Jan. 10 Santa Ynez S., where she shortened up to seven furlongs and hit her best stride late. Baffert said afterward that she’d stick to longer trips from now on. That makes sense for a filly by champion Blame, best known for holding off Zenyatta in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).

If Explora turns the tables on Super Corredora, she would hand Baffert his 10th Las Virgenes victory and fifth in a row.

With those two heavyweights in the line-up, only two other fillies have dared to enter the Las Virgenes. Thus, the Oaks points will be allocated to the four finishers on a 20-10-6-4 basis.

Meaning can make a case that it’s not necessarily a two-horse race. The Michael McCarthy pupil was a staying-on fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in her stakes and two-turn debut. Previously, she rolled in her premiere in a Los Alamitos sprint, and her lack of racing experience might have told in the Breeders’ Cup. As a Gun Runner filly like Super Corredora, Meaning has a license to improve.

Bank Shot, a remote third in Super Corredora’s maiden win, has a bigger bridge to gap. Yet she enters on an upward curve for Ryan Hanson. Beaten just a half-length by future Starlet (G2) winner Consequent in a Del Mar maiden, Bank Shot recently scored a hard-fought maiden win at this course and distance.