Stakes Advance - Bayakoa 2025
Compiled by Robert Yates
Lightly raced Loved launches her 6-year-old campaign as the program favorite for the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares Saturday at Oaklawn.
The Bayakoa goes as the ninth of 10 races, with probable post time 4:25 p.m. (Central). Racing begins at 12:30 p.m. The Bayakoa is a major local steppingstone to the $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 12. Both races are 1 1/16 miles.
Loved is trying to give famed breeder/owner Godolphin its second consecutive Bayakoa winner after Comparative, trained by Brad Cox, captured the 2024 running. Loved, who is trained by Brendan Walsh, will be making just her 11th lifetime start Saturday.
“She has just had little niggling things,” Walsh said. “It took a while before we even got her on the racetrack. She was a 3-year-old, I believe, and then she had an injury at 4 before she came back again. She seems like she’s really developed as an older mare. Who knows what she might do this year?”
The six-horse Bayakoa field from the rail out: Corningstone, Julien Leparoux to ride, 124 pounds, 2-1 on the morning line; Wild About Hilary, C.J. McMahon, 119, 10-1; Little Jamie, Ramon Vazquez, 119, 4-1; Bow Draw, Rocco Bowen, 119, 20-1; Free Like a Girl, Ricardo Santana Jr., 124, 3-1; and Loved, Tyler Gaffalione, 119, 9-5.
Loved hasn’t started since notching her first career graded stakes victory in the $400,000 Falls City (G3) at 1 1/8 miles Nov. 28 at Churchill Downs. Loved, under Gaffalione, swept to the lead turning for home en route to a sparkling 3 ¾-length victory over Tarifa, a Cox-trained Godolphin homebred. Loved received a career-high 94 Beyer Speed Figure for the Falls City, her second stakes victory and fifth victory overall.
Walsh said the Falls City was “without a doubt” the best race of Loved’s career.
“But she went into it in her best form,” Walsh said. “I was very confident that day that she was doing well. She seems like she’s going into this race on Saturday equally as well, so we’ll see what she does.”
Loved is based at Turfway Park, where she has five published workouts over its synthetic surface since Dec. 24. A half-sister to Grade 1 winner Maxfield by Medaglia d’Oro, Loved is attempting to win consecutive races for the second time in her career. Her resume includes a fourth-place finish, beaten nine lengths by champion Idiomatic, in the $600,000 Spinster Stakes (G1) at 1 1/8 miles Oct. 6 at Keeneland. Loved won the Falls City, run over a muddy track, in her next start.
“It’s probably the ideal race,” Walsh said, referring to the Bayakoa. “You obviously have one eye on the Apple Blossom if everything went completely right. We’ll see how things go on Saturday and keep going from there.”
Indiana-bred star Corningstone has been the dominant older two-turn female this season at Oaklawn, winning the one-mile $150,000 Mistletoe Stakes Dec. 14 and the 8 ½-furlong $150,000 Pippin Stakes Jan. 19. A Bayakoa victory would push Corningstone’s career earnings to approximately $900,000 for trainer Kenny McPeek. The now-retired Bucchero ($947,936) is the all-time leading accredited Indiana-bred career money winner.
Free Like a Girl, the leading accredited Louisiana-bred career money winner, seeks her first graded stakes victory for co-owner/trainer Chasey Deville Pomier. Co-owned by Jerry Caroom of Hot Springs, Free Like a Girl is a 19-time stakes winner and 21 of 47 overall, with earnings of $2,123,438.
Free Like a Girl was an allowance winner at one mile last March at Oaklawn. After finishing third in the Apple Blossom, she ran second to Idiomatic, beaten 3 ¾ lengths, in the $1 million La Troienne Stakes (G1) at 1 1/16 miles last May at Churchill Downs.
Free Like a Girl is being wheeled back in two weeks after finishing fourth, beaten four lengths by Recharge, in the $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles Jan. 25 at Sam Houston Race Park.
“She always performs; she always tries her best,” Deville Pomier said. “It looked like a speed-favoring track that day, but I can’t knock her for anything. It just wasn’t her day. The track was a little biased toward speed, inside, and that’s not where she wants to be.”
Little Jamie broke her maiden last March at Oaklawn for trainer Robbie Medina, then finished second, beaten a head, in the $200,000 Indiana Oaks (G3) at Horseshoe Indianapolis and third in the $250,000 Monmouth Oaks (G3) at Monmouth Park. Both 1 1/16 miles races were in July.
Little Jamie exits a 1 ¼-length victory in the $100,000 Wayward Lass Stakes at 1 1/16 miles Jan. 11 at Tampa Bay Downs. It was her first career stakes victory.
Oaklawn’s final major prep for the Apple Blossom is the $400,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) March 8, which could mark the 2025 debut of reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna. The Azeri is also 1 1/16 miles.
