Crypto Mo will help usher in the Evangeline Downs meet on Friday night, when she makes her first start since capturing last summer’s Grade 3 Iowa Oaks in the $60,000 Spotted Horse. The one-mile race for fillies and mares is one of two stakes on the card. The $60,000 Acadiana features 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs. Evangeline, in Opelousas, La., is set to race 70 dates through Aug. 24. First post will be 5:30 p.m. Central. The track will race Wednesday through Saturday in April and May and Thursday through Saturday through August. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. The Spotted Horse field of six includes Perfect Wish, winner of the $75,000 She’s All In Stakes in December at Remington Park, and Tryinmyheartout, who was stakes-placed during the Fair Grounds meet that concluded in late March. Crypto Mo has been in training at Fair Grounds in preparation for her first start since a two-length win in the Iowa Oaks on July 8 at Prairie Meadows. It was the third straight victory for the filly, and it served as the 2,000th career Thoroughbred victory for jockey Cindy Murphy. Following the race, Crypto Mo was sold at auction and on Friday makes her first start for owners Qatar Racing and Hunter Valley Farms and trainer Brad Cox. “We’ve kind of struggled with a place to start her back,” Cox said. “Obviously, she doesn’t have any, or many, conditions left. Horses like this can be challenging to find races for. We feel like this fits, makes sense, to get her back going, knock the rust off of her. Hopefully, she can move forward from this and we can get her back into graded stakes company in the near future.” Crypto Mo breezed five furlongs in 1:01.80 on March 23 at Fair Grounds in one of her final preps for Friday. “She pretty much did all of her training there,” Cox said. “There was an allowance race or two that we kind of had our eye on that we had no luck with going. Once again, it’s very challenging to find races to fit horses like this.” Timothy Thornton, who is a three-time title winner at Evangeline, has the mount from the rail in the Spotted Horse. Thornton will be aboard Nana’s Corn Muffin in the Acadiana. She will be looking to turn the tables on Six String, who makes her stakes debut after opening her career with three straight wins at Delta Downs. Both fillies are trained by Allen Landry. One of Thornton’s longtime riding rivals, Gerard Melancon, retired last month following a 40-year career spanning more than 5,000 wins and will work the Evangeline meet as a jockey agent for Joe Stokes and Marlon Del-Cid. Lee Thomas is back to defend his training title. Free Like a Girl will call the Evangeline backstretch home. The millionaire mare comes off a stakes win at Fair Grounds and is being considered for a start in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap later this month at Oaklawn, according to her trainer, Chasey Deville-Pomier. Evangeline’s stakes program continues Saturday night with another double led by the $100,000 Evangeline Mile. The track’s Louisiana Legends card of stakes is on June 1. There will be six Louisiana-bred stakes, each worth $100,000. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.