Ova Charged Survives Late Challenge For Three-Peat in Ladies Sprint
by Chad Schexnayder
Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint
OVA CHARGED
Star Guitar - Charged Cotton, by Dehere
Owner: Brittlyn Stable, Inc. • Breeder: Brittlyn, Inc. Trainer: Shane Wilson • Jockey: J A Guerrero
The finish line came just in time for Brittlyn Stable’s classy mare Ova Charged to win her sig- nature race, the $100,000 Ladies Sprint, for the third time. Spotting her runner-up Basalt Street six pounds, Ova Charged got her nose on the wire ahead of her rival in 1:10.67 for six fur- longs. Jockey Jose Guerrero and
Ova Charged stalked the pace on the backside before forging to the lead with a furlong to go. Guerrero peeked back inside the sixteenth pole to spot a fast charging Basalt Street to his outside. Ova Charged dug in determinedly to prevail by a diminishing margin. Brittlyn sta- blemate Spirited Beauty ran third for the second year in a row.
“When we hit the wire she dug back in a little bit,” Guerrero said. “I saw the 3 (Basalt Street) coming but I wasn’t worried about it. This filly has a big heart and I thought I’d won the race for sure.”
Training Ova Charged for the first time was Shane Wilson, who admitted he would’ve like to get one more workout into her before this race.
“We skipped the race opening day because I didn’t think she was ready,” Wilson said. “Even today I wanted one more work. We caught rain last week so we just took care of her and her guts really got us there today. She got a little heavy there at the end so we probably needed one more work for her best, but she got there.”
The 5-year-old chestnut mare has earned $428,780 from only 12 career starts with nine wins and one runner-up finish. “To me she’s just another great Star Guitar,” Wilson added of Ova Charged. “Anybody who breeds horses in Louisiana if you want to run on Champions Day you breed to Star Guitar. He’s the best stal- lion and he’s had more starters today than any other stallion. Three winners. If you wanna be in the big races, you breed to him. I’m just thankful Ms. Evelyn kept him here and didn’t send him to Kentucky to be a stallion.”
