Millionaire Free Like a Girl ventures north

One day before the Grade 3 race winner vies in the Azeri, the Houston Ladies Classic runner-up is on display at Oaklawn.

Free Like a Girl is an important new shooter in today’s $141,000 allowance feature for older fillies and mares at one mile. The Louisiana 5-year-old is a racing millionaire in her native state with Grade 3 placings last out in Texas and thrice in 2022 stakes when 3. She finished a neck second to Steve Asmussen-trained Bellamore in the Houston Classic Jan. 27 at Sam Houston.

With Ricardo Santana Jr., she breaks from the rail in a 10-horse field, her opening odds at 3-1 second to Robertino Diodoro trainee Jubella (52), track leader Cristian Torres aboard. Ninth of 10 races on the track’s first four-day racing week including Sunday, post time is 4:55 p.m.

Bellamore has seven rivals in Saturday’s Grade 2 $400,000 Azeri, a mile-andsixteenth prep for the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap in April. The Empire Maker 6-year-old looms a live longshot (5-1 on the morning line) in a field with last-out Oaklawn G3 winner Comparative and Arkansas-owned Hot and

Sultry, who lost all chance at the break in the Bayakoa Feb. 3 at the Azeri distance. Comparatice, trained by Brad Cox, won the Bayakoa under New York-based rider Manny Franco.

Free Like a Girl’s owners include Hot Springs native Jerry Caroom, Oaklawn’s runner-up in that category with 16 winners last season (one behind fellow Arkansans Heath and Sheena Campbell). Caroom races the mare in partnership with Gerald Bruno Jr. and the mare’s trainer, Chasey Deville Pornier.

Bruno paid $5,500 for Free Like a Girl in the 2020 Equine Sales of Louisiana yearling sale in 2020. Although 0 for 3 in 2024, she is a 15-time winner with more than $1.1 million from 35 career starts. Her maiden victory coming at Evangeline Downs when 2, the bay mare is a stakes winner in New Orleans (Fair Grounds), Opelousas (Evangeline) and Vinton (Delta Downs). She ventured north for a fourth-place finish to Secret Oath in the 2022 G3 Honeybee at Oaklawn.

Caroom is a co-owner of Track Phantom, a Quality Road colt trained by Asmussen, who goes in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby March 23 at Fair Grounds over a mile and three-sixteenths, the Preakness distance.