Louisiana Breds Impress in Kentucky Oaks Undercard Stakes

Ova Charged Wins G3 Unbridled Sidney Stakes

Free Like A Girl Second in $1,000,000 G1 La Troienne

Louisiana Bred Ova Charged wins the G3 Unbridled Sidney Stakes at Churchill Downs on the Kentucky Oaks undercard. Coady Media.

Louisiana breds have proven once again that they are competitive at every level of the game, this time on the worldwide stage of the Kentucky Derby Weekend.

Impressive six-year-old Louisiana bred race mare Ova Charged earned her first graded stakes win in the 14th running of the $332,000 G3 Unbridled Sidney Stakes for fillies and mares Friday, May 3rd at Churchill Downs in the Kentucky Oaks undercard.

After a slow break from the gate, betting favorite Ova Charged survived an early speed duel with Stone Silent and then held off challengers in deep stretch to post a neck victory over Secret Money to win.

Trained by Shane Wilson and ridden by Florent Geroux, Ova Charged completed the 5 1⁄2 furlongs on a yielding turf course in 1:03.71.

Ova Charged is by all-time Louisiana bred leading money earner Star Guitar out of stakes winning Dehere mare, Charged Cotton. It is the fifth consecutive victory for the 6-year-old mare, and her 13th win in 16 starts bringing her current lifetime earnings to $789,200 for owner/breeder Evelyn Benoit’s Brittlyn Stables.

Ova Charged started the Fair Grounds season with a new trainer, Shane Wilson, and won her first two starts, both on the dirt at six furlongs. She then romped against open company in the Mardi Gras Stakes on the turf February 13, then soundly defeated a field of Louisiana-breds in the Page Cortez Stakes March 24, winning by 12 1/2 lengths.

"She gets over the turf real easy," Wilson said. "She’s so easy to train, she’s so smart. She’s a very, very talented filly, and we figured out that it’s better if we don’t waste her time getting bullet workouts every morning. I train her every day, she’s very sound. We put her on the turf because her mother was a stakes winner on the turf. So, she’ll stay on the grass.”

Louisiana Bred Champion Free Like A Girl pictured winning the 2023 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Distaff. Hodges Photography.

Louisiana bred Free Like A Girl turned in a valiant effort in the $1,000,000 G1 La Troienne S. The El Deal filly made a bid down the lane from the rail in a threat to eventual winner last year’s Eclipse Award winning older dirt female, Idiomatic, who now has 4 consecutive grade 1 wins to her credit, but was unable to hold on, settling for second. Racing for trainer Chasey Deville Pomier, Gerald Bruno Jr., Carl Deville, and Jerry Caroom, Free Like a Girl earned her second straight grade 1 placing this season.

Bred by Kim Renee Stover and Lisa Osborne, 5-year-old Free Like A Girl now has an impressive record of 17 wins, 11 seconds and 6 thirds from 39 starts.  She has fifteen stakes wins and has been in the money in two G1 stakes, and four G3 stakes. Her bankroll continues to increase and currently stands at $1,618,478 (less than $150,000 shy of all-time leading Louisiana money earner Star Guitar). Additionally, she has been named 2023 Louisiana Champion 4-Year-Old & Upwards Filly or Mare, 2022 Louisiana Horse of the Year and Champion 3-Year-Old Filly, and 2021 Louisiana Champion 2-Year-Old Filly.

From the first crop of G1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap Winner El Deal, who entered stud in Louisiana in 2018, she is out of Flashy Bull mare Flashy Prize.