Free Like a Girl will help the Delta Downs racing season get off to a rousing start when the all-time richest Louisiana-bred makes an appearance in Friday night’s $100,000 Magnolia Stakes for fillies and mares at seven furlongs. The Magnolia is one of four Louisiana-bred stakes on the card, each worth $100,000 and run at seven furlongs, which is a two-turn configuration at Delta. Delta is racing through Feb. 22, with a new, earlier post time of 4:50 p.m. Central. Patrons returning for opening weekend will find a new winner’s circle and an updated paddock. The stakes schedule features 23 races worth $1.8 million, with the highlight being the Louisiana Premier Night program Feb. 1. The races Friday night could produce starters for the meet’s richest card. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. Free Like a Girl is back home in Louisiana after a whirlwind spring and summer in which she placed in Grade 1 races at Oaklawn Park and Churchill Downs and became the all-time leading Louisiana-bred earner by winning the $500,000 Misty Bennett Pink Ribbon on Aug. 23 at Charles Town. “We’re excited to be home,” said Chasey Deville Pomier, who co-owns and trains Free Like a Girl. The win in the Misty Bennett, a seven-furlong sprint around two turns, pushed Free Like a Girl’s earnings past $1.9 million. She’s made one start since, finishing an uncharacteristic eighth in the Grade 2 Locust Grove at Churchill. Free Like a Girl set a pressured pace in the 1 1/16-mile race Sept. 14. “She had a little bit of pressure sitting on the lead,” Deville Pomier said. “We were hoping she wouldn’t be on the lead, but that’s where she went so we just went from there. “She wasn’t 100 percent after the race. We scoped her and there was a little mucus. Now she’s all cleared up and looking good.” Free Like a Girl is returning to a Delta surface over which she is 5 for 8. “She’s been training well,” Deville Pomier said. “She loves the track. It’s a home track for her. This is her favorite track.” One of Free Like a Girl’s other favorites is Deville Pomier’s daughter, Averie. “She’s happy as long as she sees her little human,” Deville Pomier said. “When we broke her and had her 2-year-old year, Averie was home schooled, so every day in the barn she was my right hand, watching her. I think Averie was 8 or 9 when we got her. Now she’s 12.” Free Like a Girl and Averie have a peppermint-eating ritual after each race. There will be one change in Free Like a Girl’s world as Evangeline Downs title winner Elio Barrera will be riding the mare for the first time when she breaks from post 9 in the field of 10. “He’s been working her for a while now, helping us out,” said Deville Pomier. “He knows her. He knows her well. He galloped for three years for me before he went out on his own to [race] ride.” Louisiana Jewel The unbeaten multiple stakes winner Secret Faith will make her two-turn debut in the Jewel, which is for 2-year-old fillies. Secret Faith was a 14-length winner of a division of the D.S. “Shine” Young Memorial Futurity in her last start Aug. 2 at Evangeline Downs. Prior to the race, she had won a maiden special weight at Evangeline and a division of the Texas Thoroughbred Association Futurity at Lone Star Park. Trainer Jayde Gelner is hopeful Secret Faith will handle the move to two turns Friday. “I feel pretty good about it,” he said. “She’s been training really good over the surface and worked really good, so I expect a good performance. She’s such a big filly, too. I think the two turns should suit her well.” Secret Faith is a daughter of Aurelius Maximus and a half-brother to two-turn stakes winner Strong Promise. Secret Faith led at every point of call in the Shine Young, which was a 5 1/2-furlong race that went in 1:04.49. “She just did it easily, under wraps,” Gelner said. “She’s out there galloping and she’s just pulling away from the other ones and you look down at the time and it was pretty quick to do it how she did it.” Secret Faith was then pointed for the Jewel. “We gave her a little time after the race because she went to Lone Star and came back and it was hot and we just didn’t want to pound her,” Gelner said. “We gave her a few more days off than usual and whenever she got back into training she was feeling herself. It didn’t take anything out of her.” C.J. McMahon has the mount from post 2. “I’d have to assume she’d be pretty close to the pace,” Gelner said. “We’re just going to play it from the break and see what she feels like doing that day, but she just naturally is pretty quick.” The chief threat could be Warrior Justice, a maiden special weight winner last out at Horseshoe Indianapolis. She is a daughter of Triple Crown winner Justify and the stakes-winning mare Warrior Maid. ◗ Stakes winner Louisiana Jess puts his 2-for-2 record on the line in the Legacy. ◗ Allnight Moonlight looks to win his third straight race in the Gold Cup. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.