NEW ORLEANS, La. – Fair Grounds and its leading trainer this meet, Shane Wilson, are ending the 2023-24 season with a massive Sunday. Heavy rain caused the cancellation of the March 17 program and with six of those contests brought back closing day, racing begins at noon and ends seven hours and 15 races later. The Wilson barn might need to bring on additional staff to get through the day. Wilson at card’s end will have won his first Fair Grounds training title. After racing here Thursday, he held a 20-win advantage, 46 to 26, over Tom Amoss, and Wilson has entrants in a staggering 10 races Sunday. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. The best of them, without question, is Ova Charged, the 3-5 morning-line favorite in the $100,000 Page Cortez, one of three stakes, all for Louisiana-breds, on the program. Ten were entered but not all will run – not with Ova Charged’s connections, Wilson and owner Brittlyn Stable, opting for this turf sprint over the $300,000 Giant’s Causeway at Keeneland. Ova Charged would not have been out of her league in the open stakes, not with the way she performed Feb. 13 in the Mardi Gras Stakes. The 6-year-old homebred mare in three starts during the first four months of 2023 looked like an aging, fragile horse in decline. Wilson took over her training last summer and has overseen a renaissance. Wilson said he ran a short horse Dec. 9 in the Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint, which Ova Charged won by a nose on class. She took a meaningful step forward easily beating similar Louisiana-bred stakes competition a month later before a real breakout in the Mardi Gras. Trying turf for only the second time, Ova Charged put on a show, contesting a fast pace before unleashing a wicked turn of foot that ended with a 5.42-second half-furlong. She crushed the established turf-sprint stakes mare Oeuvre winning by more than five lengths. No one in the Page Cortez can approach that performance and any bettor brazen enough to take on this favorite should not do so because Ova Charged hasn’t worked since the Mardi Gras. This horse always has done best when kept to a light breeze regimen and Wilson has seized upon that to bring Ova Charged to a career peak. Bret Calhoun entered two in the Page Cortez but will scratch Free Drop Maddie, running Star Moment against Ova Charged because his filly exits a layoff and needs a race. Calhoun’s big stakes chance comes with Jack Hammer in the $100,000 Star Guitar. Touchuponastar would be a price similar to Ova Charged were he to start Sunday, but the horse is expected to race Saturday in the New Orleans Classic. Calhoun won’t run Jack Hammer if Touchuponastar’s connections reverse course and go for the Star Guitar. “I feel like he could bounce off his last start and still win this race, but not against Touchuponastar,” said Calhoun. Jack Hammer has been a stakes-level Louisiana-bred since his 2-year-old season but hit a new level this winter. Stretched from sprints to a route, Jack Hammer was a very nice winner of a Louisiana-bred allowance race Feb. 4, yet easily topped that performance March 2 in the Eddie Johnston Memorial, another dirt route. Tracking a swift pace over a muddy, sealed surface, Jack Hammer took command around the far turn and drew steadily clear to win by 8 1/2 lengths, posting a 100 Beyer Speed Figure, easily a career best. “He hit another gear when a horse came to him,” Calhoun said. “He’s always been a very solid horse, but not like that. You wonder if it was just the off track. Is he improving? Everything we’ve seen from him since the race has been good.” Free Like a Girl will be favored over A G’s Charlotte in the $100,000 Shantel Lanerie Memorial, a dirt route for older fillies and mares that ends the marathon card. Also running is Spirited Beauty, who closes a memorable meet for Shane Wilson. Mr Wireless might try longer Mr Wireless came out of his brilliant March 14 comeback win in good shape, but connections haven’t decided what comes next for the 6-year-old. A dirt-route stakes horse of real accomplishment, Mr Wireless returned to action following a layoff of more than 10 months in a six-furlong allowance that Calhoun was using as a prep for a route. Mr Wireless hadn’t sprinted since his career debut and Calhoun didn’t expect him to run to form, but Mr Wireless clocked 1:08.56, the second-fastest six furlongs of the meet, while earning a career-best 102 Beyer. “I didn’t see that coming from him at all, but he’s just a bigger, stronger-bodied horse than when he was young,” Calhoun said. Calhoun said races this spring in Kentucky from seven furlongs to 1 1/16 miles will be considered for Mr. Wireless’s next outing. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.