Louisiana Champions Day Fields Set; Touchuponastar, Free Like a Girl, and Smoken Wicked Headline

By Kevin Kilroy —-

Louisiana Champions Day Fields Set for Saturday, Dec. 14 at Fair Grounds
Touchuponastar, Free Like a Girl, and Smoken Wicked Likely Heavy Favorites in Respective Divisions

New Orleans, La (Dec. 9, 2024) – Fields have been drawn for the 34th annual Louisiana Champions Day on Saturday, Dec. 14 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, which features seven stakes offering $750,000 in combined purses. With an average field size of 10 across the 10-race program, the Champions Day card attracted the best Louisiana-breds from across the state, including Touchuponastar, Free Like a Girl, and Smoken Wicked, each likely heavy favorites in their respective divisions.

First post on Saturday is 12:45 p.m. CT and the added money events will go as Race 3 and Races 5 – 10, covering the $1 Pick 6 and 50-cent Late Pick 5.

Set-Hut’s Touchuponastar returns to Fair Grounds gunning for a record-tying third $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic title. Through 33 editions only his sire, Star Guitar, has won three Classic crowns. Owned by Jake Delhomme and trained by his brother Jeff Delhomme, the 2023 Louisiana-bred Horse of the Year drew to the outside of four older males. Beyond his dominance against his statebred peers, the 12-time winning 5-year-old has finished second in three graded stakes, including last year’s New Orleans Classic Presented by Relyne GI By Hagyard (G2). Written for 1 1/8 miles across the main track, the Classic will go as Race 3.

An all-stakes $1 Pick 6 kicks off with two of Champions Day’s most intriguing races. All signs point to this year’s crop of Louisiana-bred 2-year-olds being one of the strongest to date from top-to-bottom and the cream of the crop will knock heads in both the $100,000 Lassie (Race 5) and $100,000 Juvenile (Race 6), both written at 6 furlongs across the main track.

Norman Stable’s Secret Faith has been a standout in her five races, winning each and doing so overcoming adversity. Trained By Jayde Gelner, Secret Faith fought gamely for daylight when pinned in down the stretch of the Donovan L. Ferguson. The 4-time stakes winner will have her toughest test to date as two new maiden-breakers enter the added money scene, led by Stonestreet Stables and Peter Leidel’s Blue Fire. Over opening weekend, no 2-year-old, male or female, ran faster than Blue Fire, who earned a 90 Brisnet Speed figure in her dominant wire-to-wire maiden-breaking score. The daughter of Aurelius Maximus is trained by Steve Asmussen and will see Jose Ortiz return to the irons.

Since breaking his maiden on debut in June, Valene Farms’ Smoken Wicked has only faced the creme de la creme of the sport’s freshman crop, and has $174,960 to show for it. The Dallas Stewart trainee earned 2 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby when finishing fourth to Chancer McPatrick in the Champagne (G1) at Saratoga, one of four open company stakes tries. Smoken Wicked racked up his second win last out against allowance company at Churchill Downs.

Smoken Wicked could mark a major milestone for Stewart, who currently sits at 999 career wins and has no other entries this week.

Standing in Smoken Wicked’s way on Saturday will be Maggi Moss’ Peluso Memorial winner Hay Jude. In just his second outing, the Tom Amoss trainee overcame a nightmare trip to narrowly defeat Voila Magic and Louisiana Jess, both of whom will look for revenge in Saturday’s Juvenile, which attracted seven runners.

Gerald Bruno Jr., Chasey Deville Pomier, and Jerry Caroom’s multi-millionaire Free Like a Girl took the 2023 Louisiana Champions Day Distaff, which was run on the dirt, but with the 2024 edition of the Distaff being written as the Ladies Turf, the 5-year-old mare has been entered along with eight other older fillies and mares in the $100,000 Ladies Sprint.

Exiting her latest stakes score going two turns in the local Valene Memorial, the 2022 Louisiana-bred Horse of the Year returns to six panels, a distance at which she has a 9-4-2-2 record. Five of Free Like a Girl’s six graded stakes placings have come going two turns, including finishing second to Idiomatic in the La Troienne (G1), but when going 7 furlongs in 2022 Charles Towns Oaks, Free Like a Girl ran second to Society.

Led by trainer Ronnie Ward’s Noneya, the Delmar R. Caldwell trifecta have all entered the Ladies Sprint for a shot to take on the all-time top earning Louisiana-bread, who has banked just shy of $2.1 million.

A perfect three-for-three as a 4-year-old, Allied Racing Stables’ Jack Hammer will return in the $100,000 Sprint not having raced since winning the local Eddie Johnston Memorial last March. Trainer Bret Calhoun tapped the current meet’s leading rider Jose Ortiz to pilot Jack Hammer, who will have his work cut out for him facing from top-to-bottom the most accomplished field on the card, including the trifecta from last year’s edition in Mangum, Bron and Brow, and Mike J. All but one of the thirteen entered in the Sprint can point to a stakes win on their resume. The Sprint serves as the Louisiana Champions Day finale.

Two 1 1/16 miles grass stakes have been carded for Louisiana Champions Day this year, and with the portable rail set at 24 feet on the Stall-Wilson turf course, both added money affairs attracted full fields of 11. The $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Turf will go as Race 7, and the female counterpart, as Race 9.

Winner of last year’s $100,000 Turf, Brittlyn Stable’s Behemah Star returns to rack up another for trainer Shane Wilson. Coming up 3/4 lengths short last out in the Morreale Memorial, the 6-year-old son of Star Guitar who hadn’t started since August might have needed that race.

Chief among Behemah Star’s competition is Allied Racing Stable’s 2021 and 2022 winner, Who Took the Money, the last horse who was able to repeat in the Turf. The Bret Calhoun trainee showed a strong effort in his prep, a local allowance where he ran a close fourth to Verstappen.

Oversubscribed at 12, the $100,000 Ladies Turf is slated as the penultimate race on the card. After finishing a game second last out in the Valene to Free Like a Girl, Brittlyn Stable’s 3-year-old filly Clearly a Test will make her first start on the sod for trainer Shane Wilson. Fellow 3-year-old Eye of the Pharaoh, a Coteau Grove Farm homebred trained by Steve Asmussen, has only raced twice but has been dominant in both two-turn turf races, winning by open lengths last out over local allowance company.

Full fields for all seven Louisiana Champions Day stakes can be found on Equibase: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/FG121424USA-EQB.html.

Entries for the Dec. 21 Road to the Derby Kickoff Day will be drawn Saturday, Dec. 14. Led by the Gun Runner and Untappable, the final 2-year-old preps for the 151st Running of the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, eight stakes will be carded worth a combined $800,000 in added money purses.

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About Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots

Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, one of the nation’s oldest racetracks, has been in operation since 1872. Located in New Orleans, La, Fair Grounds, which is owned by Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ Global Select Market: CHDN), also operates a slot-machine gaming facility and 15 off-track betting parlors throughout Southeast Louisiana. The 153rd Thoroughbred Racing Season–highlighted by the 112th running of the Louisiana Derby–will run from Nov. 22, 2024 through March 23, 2025. More information is available online at www.fgno.com.