Free Like a Girl tries for elusive graded stakes win in Locust Grove

The hard-knocking Louisiana-bred Free Like a Girl’s popularity grew when she appeared at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby weekend and gamely chased home a champion. The mare returns looking to earn her first career graded stakes win, and push her already-sizeable bankroll past $2 million, in Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Locust Grove Stakes, for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles.

Five-year-old Free Like a Girl, who is co-owned and trained by Chasey Deville-Pomier, is coming off a win in the Misty Bennett Pink Ribbon Stakes last month at Charles Town, which made her the all-time leading Louisiana-bred earner, with a bankroll of $1,916,978. It was the 16th career stakes win, but the first outside her home state, for the mare, who is 18 for 41 overall.

Free Like a Girl has been in the top three in six of her eight graded attempts in six different states, including a pair of forays into Grade 1 company earlier this year. She finished third in the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park, won by West Coast divisional leader Adare Manor. In the process, she was beaten less than a length for second, while finishing ahead of graded stakes winners Shotgun Hottie and Taxed, who she faces again here.

Free Like a Girl then contested the La Troienne on the Kentucky Oaks undercard, and got within a half-length of Eclipse Award champion Idiomatic before that one dismissed her in the stretch. Still, her runner-up effort put her ahead of another champion, Pretty Mischievous, in third.

Free Like a Girl then made another start at Churchill, and found herself in a somewhat-unusual position on the lead in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis in June, after some others broke poorly or didn’t take initiative. She faded to last in the field of six, perhaps also bouncing out of two strong efforts. She returned about two months later for her Charles Town win, with a happy tracking trip.

Although there aren’t the likes of Idiomatic or Adare Manor in this field of eight, a competitive group has been assembled including three graded stakes winners who are all solid performers on this track. Millionaire Shotgun Hottie has won four stakes overall, including the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher at Monmouth last year. She is coming off back-to-back runner-up efforts in Grade 2 events, including in the roughly run Fleur de Lis, when she missed Scylla by a neck after finally committing to coming through a seam on the rail.

Hoosier Philly won her first three career starts at Churchill Downs, including the Grade 2 Golden Rod in 2022. Although she has yet to recapture that form, she has won three listed stakes in the ensuing years. Taxed, a game third after being in contention throughout in the Fleur de Lis, won the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan last year.

The field is completed by Pigallie, who is coming off a win in the Groupie Doll at Ellis Park; Loved, last-out winner of the Mari Hulman George Memorial in Indiana; Corningstone; and Musical Mischief. Pigallie and Loved both came from off the pace for their last-out wins, but have raced on the lead for prior victories. In a field where it seems as though many of the main candidates would like to be with the vanguard just off the lead, either of those could be dangerous taking initiative.

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