Free Like a Girl, who rose from a $5,500 yearling purchase to become the all-time richest Louisiana-bred with earnings of $2.5 million, was scheduled to leave her homestate this week to sell at a Nov. 3 auction at Fasig-Tipton in Lexington, Ky., according to her co-owner and trainer, Chasey Deville Pomier.
“We’ll make our way to the Night of the Stars sale,” she said.
Free Like a Girl is listed as a racing or broodmare prospect and is being consigned by Vinery. She last raced Oct. 11 at Delta Downs in Vinton, La., finishing second in the $100,000 Magnolia, a seven-furlong race in which she did not get a clear run until the later stages. Free Like a Girl potentially closed out her career in the race, and will enter the auction ring with a record of 21 wins from 55 starts for earnings of $2,565,628.
“We kind of have a number of what we would like, obviously, and we’re going to pretty much stick to that number,” said Deville Pomier. “If it’s not close to what we want, then she’s coming home, maybe run to January, something like that. But the way the market has been, I think we’ll get what we want for her.”
Other partners in Free Like a Girl are Gerald Bruno Jr., Jerry Caroom, and Carl Deville.
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During her career, Free Like a Girl was crowned Louisiana-bred of the year twice, for campaigns in 2022 and 2024. She won 19 stakes races. Free Like a Girl also placed in a handful of graded stakes and earlier this year at Oaklawn Park ran second to Thorpedo Anna, the reigning Horse of the Year, in both the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap and Grade 2 Azeri. Free Like a Girl is now 6 and Deville Pomier is looking for a storybook ending for the best horse she’s ever trained.
“She deserves that opportunity,” Deville Pomier said of joining a top broodmare band. “She worked so hard for the opportunity to live in Bluegrass country, hopefully, or wherever they bring her, and breed her to some nice studs, and be able to live that life. She deserves that.”
Deville Pomier and her family has been around Free Like a Girl since she was purchased as a yearling.
“We broke her down in Folsom and brought her to the track when we were able to,” she said. “I’ve loved watching her run since she was working as a 2-year-old. I mean, she has just such beautiful movement and would get down low and you knew there was something there.”
Deville Pomier’s daughter, Averie, has been tight with Free Like a Girl from the start, and even was homeschooled so the young equestrian could be involved with her special friend.
“She named her when she was 8 or 9,” Deville Pomier said of Averie, who is now 13.
Deville Pomier said it would be difficult to pick a favorite race from Free Like a Girl.
“I don’t think I could even pinpoint one because it’s been a whole experience,” she said. “A lot of time in the back with her up until race time. She just makes me so proud every race she runs. Even if she doesn’t win, she tries her hardest, and she does her thing.
“And she’s been a horse if you’re having a bad day, you could go in the barn, or go in the stall with her, or sit next to her, and you could just feel this presence, like, ‘I got you.’ She means more to us than just racing.”
Deville Pomier, who is grateful for how much her staff has helped with Free Like a Girl and the travel involved, is not particularly looking forward to the auction that’s held a few days after the Breeders’ Cup.
“My whole crew is like, ‘You’re going to cry,’ ” she said. “And I said, ‘I will. I’m not even going to deny it. And you will, too.’
“She’s just brought us to new levels.”
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