Plenty of stakes options for Free Like a Girl
Free Like a Girl made a splash at Delta Downs last Friday when she won the $100,000 Louisiana Jewel for 2-year-old fillies bred in Louisiana by 18 1/2 lengths and earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 77.
“We’re very proud of her,” said trainer Chasey Deville Pomier. “She’s definitely something special.”
Pomier said Free Like a Girl emerged from the race “bright” and has upcoming stakes options in Louisiana and Arkansas.
“There’s a couple of routes we can take,” she said. “There’s a race coming up in a few weeks back at Delta, the My Trusty Cat, the Futurity at Fair Grounds, and one or two options at Oaklawn. We’ll just take things day by day.”
Free Like a Girl, who was making her two-turn debut in the Jewel, has now won back-to-back stakes, having taken a $60,000 division of the D.S. “Shine” Young Futurity in September at Evangeline Downs. The races were the first stakes wins for both the filly and Pomier.
Pomier has been a longtime assistant trainer to her father, Carl Deville. She went out on her own briefly in 2012, and her first win came at Churchill Downs. Pomier resumed training on a regular basis this year, when her father began to branch out with horses at Oaklawn and Lone Star Park.
“I’ve been under my dad since I was probably 10 at the farm,” said Pomier, a 34-year-old native of Opelousas, La. “We just decided last year, because he was going to Oaklawn and other places, I would be here. This is home for me.”
“I’m real proud of her,” said Carl Deville. “She’s a hard worker, been in this all of her life. She’s a true horse person.”
Free Like a Girl is a daughter of El Deal who races for Gerald Bruno Jr.