Free Like a Girl has gone a good, long while racing with less than two months between starts, and on Saturday at Fair Grounds, she’ll be asked to sprint for the first time in good, long while.
Free Like a Girl, set as the odds-on morning-line favorite, is one of nine older Louisiana-bred fillies and mares entered in the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint. Through an outstanding record of 45-21-11-6, 5-year-old Free Like a Girl has earned $2,099,978 in purse money, more than any other Louisiana-bred. She can be retired tomorrow and go out a smashing success.
Instead, connections are looking for a fourth straight win from a mare who has made her last 16 starts without a break as long as two months. Free Like a Girl, trained by part-owner Chasey DeVille Pomier, returns Saturday three weeks after a relatively hard-fought victory as the 2-5 favorite in the John Valene Memorial at Fair Grounds, a race that came but 15 days after she’d gutted out a win in the Treasure Chest at Delta Downs.
Free Like a Girl has thrived in dirt routes, but to get that sort of race on Champions Day, she’d have to face Touchuponastar in the Classic. The sex-restricted route stakes comes on turf, and a grass horse Free Like a Girl is not, judging from her lone turf start. The other option is sprinting six furlongs on dirt. Free Like a Girl hasn’t done that in a dozen starts, finishing a well-beaten third in a Fair Grounds Louisiana-bred stakes last January. In earlier days, one-turn dashes posed little problem for Free Like a Girl, but if she wins Saturday, it will be on class, not because she thrives at the trip.
Noneya, Freeburn, and Six String, the top three finishers from the $100,000 Delmar Caldwell Memorial, a six-furlong Fair Grounds sprint Nov. 22, can all contend but Six String is preferred. Racing farther off the pace than usual, Six String rallied up the rail for a close third in the Caldwell and has the profile of a filly set to improve upon that performance.
Juvenile
Smoken Wicked led the Grade 1 Hopeful past the stretch call in September at Saratoga, and expect him to lead the betting in the $100,000 Champions Day Juvenile.
Smoken Wicked, who debuted way back on June 1, finished second in the Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs and third in the Saratoga Special before his pacesetting fourth in the Hopeful. He ran below his best form in the Grade 1 Champagne, a one-turn Aqueduct mile, but fired to the lead and never wavered while romping in a rich Churchill allowance Nov. 2 with a robust 92 Beyer Speed Figure.
Will that overwhelm his fellow Louisiana-breds in the six-furlong Juvenile? Perhaps not.
This race came up strong for the class level, and Smoken Wicked might have his work cut out handling the one-turn finishers from the Joseph Peluso Memorial on Nov. 22.
That race’s winner, Hay Jude, overcame a poor trip, gamely splitting rivals in deep stretch after rallying from sixth. The manner of his victory diverged starkly from his debut score, a front-running victory at Delta Downs. Hay Jude has more to give and can post a mild upset.
Voila Magic, off a sharp Keeneland debut win, was beat as the 7-10 Peluso favorite, failing to change leads in the homestretch, as had been the case while winning at Keeneland. Voila Magic, a half-brother to Touchuponastar, ran better in Kentucky than he did in Louisiana and has a rebound performance in him for trainer Steve Asmussen and runaway leading jockey Jose Ortiz.
Lassie
Secret Faith can win the $100,000 Lassie for 2-year-old fillies, but the test before her looms a more demanding one than she’s yet taken. Secret Faith, 5 for 5 to start her career, didn’t get much of a trip last month at Fair Grounds in the Donovan Ferguson Stakes, though once she finally found daylight, Secret Faith cruised to a six-length victory.
She meets at least two horses, Blue Fire and Fast Flame who are faster than anything she’s beaten. Both fillies, Louisiana-bred maiden winners at the meet, want to show speed where Secret Faith, with C.J. McMahon riding for trainer Jayde Gelner, prefers a stalk-and-pounce trip.
Turf
Trainer Shane Wilson came out of nowhere to capture the 2023-24 Fair Grounds training title. So far this season, it hasn’t been that smooth for Wilson, whose meet record through Dec. 11 stood at 43-3-3-4. While the Wilson stable has dropped more duds than bombs, Behemah Star returned from a layoff approaching three months with an encouraging run, finishing third, beaten less than one length, in the Jake Morreale Stakes on Nov. 23.
That dirt race that could have Behemah Star positioned to land his second straight $100,000 Champions Day Turf, though a familiar rival, Who Took the Money, stands in the way.
In the 2023 Turf, Behemah Star stalked a slow pace and got a big jump on late-running Who Took the Money, who flashed home with his typical strong run from the rear of the field but could not reel in Behemah Star.
More pace pops up in this year’s Turf, which could help Who Took the Money win the Turf for the third time.
Since his runner-up showing a year ago, Who Took the Money, a superior grass horse, has made five of seven starts on dirt. In April, he failed to fire in a 1 1/2-mile Keeneland grass allowance, and last month, in a stakes-class Fair Grounds grass allowance, Who Took the Money turned in a final 2 1/2 furlongs in 29.21, easily best in the field, to nab fourth in an encouraging performance. Merely running back to that race might suffice to win another turf for Who Took the Money’s owner and breeder, Allied Racing, and trainer Bret Calhoun.
Benoit has the feel of a value-adding exacta partner for Who Took the Money if Behemah Star can’t shake the Wilson barn out of the doldrums.
In fact, Wilson’s best stakes chance Saturday might come in the other grass race, the Ladies Turf, where he sends out Clearly a Test. The Brittlyn Stable homebred has never tried grass but nearly ran down Free Like a Girl last month in the John Valene Memorial. She’s an established route stakes horse and is by Clearly Now, who has three winning turf performers from only 10 of his offspring to try the surface.
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