by Tom Early

On March 6th, the LTBA announced the 2025 Accredited Louisiana Bred Champions. The racing champions as well as the Broodmare of the Year are chosen by the LTBA membership through mail-in voting. The remaining champions were determined by statistics.

Touchuponastar was named Overall Louisiana Bred Horse of the Year. The LTBA Board of Directors selects the overall horse of the year from among the racing champions.

Below you can read about each of the champions. The champions and their connections will be honored at the Annual LTBA Awards Banquet and REAP Benefit, to be held August 1st at Evangeline Downs. Be sure to save the date!

2025 Accredited Louisiana Bred Champion Two-Year-Old Filly

Little Miss Curlin

Sire: Charlatan
Dam: Mylady Curlin
Breeder: Coteau Grove Farms, LLC
Owner: Coteau Grove Farms, LLC
Trainer: Patrick Devereux, Jr.

When Little Miss Curlin won the Donovan L. Ferguson Memorial Stakes on the opening weekend of the 2025-26 Fair Grounds meet, she became the first stakes winner for her sire, Charlatan, a Grade I stakes winning son of Speightstown who won the Arkansas Derby and the Malibu Stakes at three.

Little Miss Curlin easily added a victory in the Louisiana Champions Day Lassie to finish the year with a perfect three wins from three starts. From her three wins in 2025 Little Miss Curlin earned $160,800 for owners Ginger and Keith Myers.

My Lady Curlin, the multiple Graded stakes winning dam of Little Miss Curlin was purchased by Coteau Grove Farms, LLC at the Keeneland Sale in 2022 carrying Little Miss Curlin, who is the first stakes winner for her dam.

2025 Accredited Louisiana Bred Champion Two-Year-Old Colt or Gelding

Our Moneyman

Sire: Mr. Money
Dam: Lipstick Junky
Breeder: Allied Racing Stable, LLC
Owner: Allied Racing Stable, LLC
Trainer: W. Bret Calhoun

Our Moneyman broke his maiden in a Maiden Special Weights race at Keeneland Race Track in his second start of his career. From there he jumped right into stakes company while finishing second to another son of Mr. Money, Mr. Mo Money, in the Joseph R. Peluso Memorial Stakes on opening day at the Fair Grounds. Three weeks later was the rematch in the Louisiana Champions Day Juvenile which saw Our Moneyman turn the tables on Mr. Mo Money thus capturing championship honors.

Our Moneyman is the third stakes winner produced by his dam, 2022 Louisiana Broodmare of the Year, Lipstick Junky, who previously produced multiple stakes winners Winning Romance and Jack Hammer.

For the year, Our Moneyman sports a record of two wins and two seconds from four starts with earnings of $152,063

2025 Accredited Louisiana Bred Champion Three-Year-Old Filly

Secret Faith

Sire: Aurelius Maximus
Dam: St. Jean
Breeder: J. Adcock & Hume Wornall
Owner: Norman Stables, LLC
Trainer: Jayde J. Gelner

Repeating Louisiana Bred Champions was the norm for 2025 with the remainder of the winners all being 2024 champions.

Last year’s champion Louisiana Bred Two-Year-Old Filly, Secret Faith, is the first repeat winner. In 2025, she recorded five wins (all stakes races) from seven starts. She began the year with a win in the Louisiana Premier Night Starlet Stakes at Delta Downs in February. In August she danced to a fourteen length win in the Louisiana Stallion Stakes presented by Coteau Grove Farm at Evangeline Downs. Back at Delta Downs in the fall, Secret Faith added the Magnolia Stakes. At the Fair Grounds she added the Delmar R. Caldwell Memorial Stakes on opening day then finished the year with a win in the Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint. Earnings for the year stood at $314,000.

Secret Faith is the third stakes winner produced by St. Jean who previously produced Two-Year-Old Champions Strong Promise and Midnight Fantasy.

2025 Accredited Louisiana Bred Champion Three-Year-Old Colt or Gelding

Smoken Wicked

Sire: Bobby’s Wicked One
Dam: Street Smoke
Breeder: Tom Curtis & Wayne Simpson
Owner: Valene Farms LLC
Trainer: Dallas Stewart

Smoken Wicked is a repeat winner after being voted 2024 Champion Two-Year-Old Colt or Gelding.

With a Graded Stakes win at Saratoga, Smoken Wicked was an easy choice for the champion Louisiana Bred Three-Year-Old Colt or Gelding. Racing out of state for all of his 2025 starts, Smoken Wicked was second in the Lafayette Stakes at Keeneland in the spring. He was second in the Maxfield Stakes at Churchill Downs in June. July saw Smoken Wicked easily capture the Grade II Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga. He added the Harrods Creek Stakes at Churchill Downs in September, but was then injured in a workout in preparation for the Breeders Cup.

For the year he had a record of two wins (both stakes) with two seconds and earnings of $403,850.

2025 Accredited Louisiana Bred Champion Four-Year-Old and up Fillies & Mares

Free Like A Girl

Sire: El Deal
Dam: Flashy Prize
Breeder: Kim Renee Stover & Lisa Osborne
Owners: Gerald Bruno Jr., Carl Deville, Chasey Pomier & Jerry Caroom
Trainer: Chasey Deville Pomier

Louisiana’s Leading All Time Money Winner by North American Earnings, Free Like A Girl, is once again the Champion Older Filly or Mare. This is Free Like A Girl’s fifth championship in a row.

Although Free Like A Girl failed to win a race in 2025 her level of competition earned her another championship. February saw her get beat by a head in the Grade III Bayakoa Stakes. In March, she was second in the Grade II Azeri Stakes. In April she moved up to the Grade I Apple Blossom Stakes. These three races were all run at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Four more Graded stakes races at saw her earn a part of the purse while not placing in the top three. She finished the year with a second to Three-Year-Old Champion Filly, Secret Faith in the Magnolia Stakes at Delta Downs. For the year Free Like A Girl earned $459,650.

Free Like A Girl was euthanized in January after a trailer accident. She will always be remembered for her extraordinary ability. With a lifetime record of twenty-one wins and twenty-one placings with nineteen stakes wins and eighteen stakes placings, her lifetime earnings were $2,565,628

2025 Accredited Louisiana Bred Champion Four-Year-Old and up Males

Touchuponastar

OVERALL ACCREDITED LOUISIANA BRED HORSE OF THE YEAR

Sire: Star Guitar
Dam: Touch Magic
Breeder: Coteau Grove Farms
Owner: Set-Hut LLC (Jake Delhomme)
Trainer: Jeff Delhomme

Touchuponstar takes his fourth consecutive Louisiana Champions Day Classic. Hodges photography.

Touchuponastar is once again the winner for his division having previously been the 2023 and 2024 Champion Louisiana Bred Older Male and the 2022 Champion Louisiana Bred Three-Year-Old Colt.

Every one of Touchuponastar’s seven starts in 2025 were in stakes races. His first win of the year was in the Louisiana Premier Night Championship Stakes at Delta Downs which he won by twelve plus lengths. In the Grade II New Orleans Classic Stakes at Fair Grounds he atoned for his 2024 defeat in this race by beating reigning Eclipse Award Champion Sierra Leone. After faltering over a sloppy track at Lone Star Park in the Steve Sexton Mile, Touchuponastar returned to Delta Downs to capture the Gold Cup in October and the Delta Mile in November. For the fourth year in a row he capped off his year with a win in the Louisiana Champions Day Classic at Fair Grounds.

With two wins in his first two start in 2026 he has now surpassed his sire, Star Guitar, in earnings by over $300,000. His lifetime record now stands at 28 starts, 21 wins, 4 seconds and two thirds for earnings of $2,060,000.

2025 Louisiana Champion Broodmare of the Year

St. Jean

Macho Uno - French Park, by Ecton Park
Owner: J. Adcock and Hume Wornall

Jay Adcock and Hume Wornall’s St. Jean is the broodmare of the year. She has produced three stakes winners in her breeding career with each of them being voted Louisiana Bred Champions.

First came Midnight Fantasy who won the Louisiana Champions Day Lassie and followed that with a win in the Louisiana Futurity to become champion Louisiana Bred Two-Year-Old Filly in 2018.

Then came Strong Promise, the winner of four stakes races as a two-year-old , including the Texas Thoroughbred Association Futurity at Lone Star Park, the Louisiana Legacy Stakes at Delta Downs, the Louisiana Cup Juvenile at Louisiana Downs. He was voted 2023 champion Louisiana Bred Two-Year-Old Colt or Gelding. Stakes placed at both three and four Strong Promise found the winners circle in the Louisiana Premier Night Sprint as a Five-Year-Old.

St. Jean’s third stakes winner is Secret Faith who has two championships to her name winning in 2024 as Champion Louisiana Bred Two-Year-Old Filly and repeating in 2025 as the Champion Louisiana Bred Three-Year-Old Filly.

St. Jean’s most recent foal is a current Two-Year-Old filly by Frosted.

Andrew L. “Red” Erwin Stallion of the Year

Star Guitar

Quiet American – Minit Towinit by Malagra
Owner: Brittlyn Stable Inc. (Evelyn Benoit)

For the Seventh time in the last eight years Star Guitar is the winner of the Andrew L. “Red” Erwin Stallion of the Year Award.

For 2025 Star Guitar sired the winners of $3,411,587. Star Guitar did this with three individual stakes winners and four stakes placed runners. The stakes winners were led by Touchuponastar, the winner of six stakes races for the year including the Grade II New Orleans Classic Stakes in which he defeated Sierra Leone the Eclipse Award winning National Three Year Old Champion from 2024. Other stakes races that Touchuponastar won include the Louisiana Premier Night Classic, Evangeline Classic, Delta Mile, Delta Gold Cup and Louisiana Champions Day Classic (for the fourth year in a row). Six String won two stakes races in 2025 that included Louisiana Premier Night Matron at Delta Downs and the Louisiana Cup Day Filly and Mare Sprint. Six String was also stakes placed in an additional four stakes races. Rue Lala won the Page Cortez Stakes as a Seven-Year-Old after being stakes placed several times previously.

Leading Breeder by Breeders Awards

Coteau Grove Farms, LLC

With six individual stakes winners running for them it is no surprise that the Coteau Grove Farm of Ginger and Keith Myers is the Leading Louisiana Breeder by Breeders Awards.

Led unsurprisingly by Touchuponastar, who won six stakes races for the year that included the $500,000 New Orleans Classic (GII) at the Fair Grounds, Coteau Grove Farm earned $441,625 in breeders awards for the year.

Another stakes performer bred by Coteau Grove Farm is Tumbarumba who won the R.A. “Cowboy” Jones Stakes at Ellis Park before adding a second Graded stakes to his resume by winning the Ack Ack Stakes (GIII) at Churchill Downs. Tumbarumba became the all time leading Accredited Louisiana Bred by boosting his earnings to $3,210,433 after finishing third in the Grade I Saudi Cup.

After being stakes placed in two Louisiana bred stakes at the Fair Grounds, Margie’s Intention won the George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (GII) on the Preakness undercard. Following her win she was Graded placed in the Delaware Oak (GIII), the Alabama Stakes (GI) and the Beldame Stakes (GII). Allnight Moonlight won four stakes races for the year that included the Don Stemmans Memorial Stakes, Edward J. Johnston Memorial Stakes, Louisiana Cup Turf Classic and finished the year with a win in the Louisiana Champions Day Turf at the Fair Grounds. Liberal Lady won the Shantel Lanerie Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds and Little Miss Curlin won the Donavan L. Ferguson Memorial Stakes and the Louisiana Champions Day Lassie at the Fair Grounds.

Leading Percentage Breeder of Stakes Winners

J.E. Jumonville Jr. and Bunny Jumonville

With just nine starters and two stakes winners J.E. Jumonville and Bunny Jumonville are the leading Percentage Breeders of stakes winners for the year.

Randemonium won the Louisiana Legacy Stakes at Delta Downs and followed that with a second in the Jean Lafitte Stakes. Wonderrand won the Louisiana Premier Night Distaff at Delta Downs. Wonderrand is the third stakes winner produced by his dam, Laughing Saint. Laughing Saint is also the grand dam of Randemonium.

2025 Accredited Louisiana Bred Champions