Saturday marked the beginning of Louisiana’s new black bear hunting season, but it will probably be a while before the sport is accessible to more than a select few hunters and landowners. 

Gov. Jeff Landry announced the opening of the season, which will last through Dec. 22, at a press conference Monday alongside hunting enthusiasts and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) officials. The governor pointed to the recovering population of black bears in the state, estimated at nearly 1,500, as a sign of successful conservation efforts. 

“We now have so many that they’re getting in the way of deer hunting,” Landry said, alluding to claims that bears are displacing deer and competing with them for food. 

The Louisiana black bear, the official state mammal, came under the protection of the Endangered Species Act in 1992. Its population had dwindled to near extinction, primarily the result of deforestation and habitat destruction. The governor also cited overhunting as a factor. 

Conservation efforts, including an LSU AgCenter program to reintroduce the animal in certain areas of the state, eventually increased the bear’s numbers. Their rebound prompted federal regulators to remove the Louisiana black bear from the endangered list in 2016.

Still, some conservationists and residents remain opposed to killing the bears for sport. In an effort to stop the creation of a bear hunting season, Humane Society of Louisiana executive director Jeff Dorson started a petition last year that garnered more than 38,000 signatures. 

But state lawmakers continued to press the idea. Last spring, the Louisiana Legislature passed a resolution by Rep. C. Travis Johnson, D-Vidalia, to have Wildlife and Fisheries study the viability of a black bear hunting season. He introduced the proposal to help manage an uptick in reported bear encounters, particularly in the Mississippi Delta region of rural northeast Louisiana. 

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission then issued a notice of intent to open the black bear hunting season with 10 permit tags for hunters. Each tag allows for the killing of one bear. The first tag went to an organization that takes military veterans hunting.

Back in January, Johnson said he expected LDWF would offer 10 tags to the public through a lottery system. On Monday, however, LDWF Secretary Madison Sheahan said seven of those tags went to the private landowners who allowed the agency to use their land for the repopulation of the bears. 

Among the remaining tags, only one was issued via a public lottery for hunting on state land, and another was issued through a similar lottery for hunting on private property in designated areas with the owner’s permission. 

Hunters with tags are permitted to kill only adult male bears in certain parts of northeast Louisiana, including Tensas, Madison, East Carroll and West Carroll parishes and portions of Richland, Franklin and Catahoula parishes. 

According to the LSU AgCenter, additional Louisiana black bear populations exist in the Morganza floodway just west of Baton Rouge and in the region stretching from the lower Atchafalaya Basin near Morgan City to the Houma area. However, those areas are not open for bear hunting. 

Sheahan said the agency will continue to monitor the black bear populations and, if necessary, adjust the number of hunting tags for future seasons.

The Louisiana Board of Ethics assessed Jay Dardenne, a longtime elected official who was also Gov. John Bel Edwards’ commissioner of administration, a $3,000 fine for filing four campaign finance reports months after their deadlines passed. 

Dardenne, who also served as Louisiana’s lieutenant governor and secretary of state, initially faced a much larger fine. The penalty for his four tardy reports was $12,000, but the board voted to reduce it to $3,000 after Dardenne personally apologized at its Friday meeting.

“I do not have any excuse I can make for failing to timely file those reports,” he told board members. “In those previous years that I filed, I had gotten in the habit only annually.”

The four reports in question were connected to Dardenne’s political action committee, JAY PAC, and should have been submitted during the fall and winter of 2023. He made a few small campaign contributions out of that account for state elections at the time. 

Dardenne, who is a Republican, donated between $250 and $500 to a small group of candidates, including Baton Rouge state Reps. Dixon McMakin and Barbara Freiberg, Secretary of State Nancy Landry and former state Rep. John Stefanski, who ran for attorney general last year. 

The fine for missing a PAC campaign reporting deadline was $200 per day for up to 15 days, at which point it reached a maximum of $3,000. Dardenne’s four reports were between 75 and 162 days late, according to information the ethics board provided. 

Dardenne set up JAY PAC during his unsuccessful bid for governor in 2015 and said Friday he hasn’t used it much in recent years. It contained no more than $7,600 total last year, according to publicly available campaign finance reports.

He said he recently drained the PAC by making a few charitable donations with its remaining funds and intends to close out the account by the end of the year.

 

The ethics board also assessed two state senators fines for failing to submit their own PAC campaign finance reports on time. 

Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, was assessed a $1,000 fine for failing to file a campaign finance report for Kirk PAC 33 days late in 2019. 

The board chose to reduce Talbot’s penalty from $3,000 to $1,000 after Talbot’s former accountant told the board Friday he was responsible for the overdue submission. Phillip Rebowe said he was locked out of his files, including the PAC’s paperwork, when he left an accounting firm and wasn’t able to file the paperwork by the deadline.

Sen. Jay Luneau, D-Alexandria, was assessed a $500 fine for filing his LA PAC campaign finance report 15 days late in the fall of 2023.  

The board voted to cut Luneau’s fine from $3,000 to $500 after Luneau appeared Friday and said his accountant had only recently taken over the PAC’s paperwork from the accountant’s dying father. Steven McKay didn’t file the report on time because he was newly assigned to Luneau’s accounts and not familiar with PAC deadlines yet. Plus McKay was caring for a sick parent who was also his business partner, the senator said.

• Touchuponastar, Free Like a Girl, and Smoken Wicked Likely Heavy Favorites in Respective Divisions

New Orleans, La (Dec. 9, 2024) – Fields have been drawn for the 34th annual Louisiana Champions Day on Saturday, Dec. 14 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, which features seven stakes offering $750,000 in combined purses. With an average field size of 10 across the 10-race program, the Champions Day card attracted the best Louisiana-breds from across the state, including Touchuponastar, Free Like a Girl, and Smoken Wicked, each likely heavy favorites in their respective divisions.

First post on Saturday is 12:45 p.m. CT and the added money events will go as Race 3 and Races 5 – 10, covering the $1 Pick 6 and 50-cent Late Pick 5.

Set-Hut’s Touchuponastar returns to Fair Grounds gunning for a record-tying third $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic title. Through 33 editions only his sire, Star Guitar, has won three Classic crowns. Owned by Jake Delhomme and trained by his brother Jeff Delhomme, the 2023 Louisiana-bred Horse of the Year drew to the outside of four older males. Beyond his dominance against his statebred peers, the 12-time winning 5-year-old has finished second in three graded stakes, including last year’s New Orleans Classic Presented by Relyne GI By Hagyard (G2). Written for 1 1/8 miles across the main track, the Classic will go as Race 3.

An all-stakes $1 Pick 6 kicks off with two of Champions Day’s most intriguing races. All signs point to this year’s crop of Louisiana-bred 2-year-olds being one of the strongest to date from top-to-bottom and the cream of the crop will knock heads in both the $100,000 Lassie (Race 5) and $100,000 Juvenile (Race 6), both written at 6 furlongs across the main track.

Norman Stable’s Secret Faith has been a standout in her five races, winning each and doing so overcoming adversity. Trained By Jayde Gelner, Secret Faith fought gamely for daylight when pinned in down the stretch of the Donovan L. Ferguson. The 4-time stakes winner will have her toughest test to date as two new maiden-breakers enter the added money scene, led by Stonestreet Stables and Peter Leidel’s Blue Fire. Over opening weekend, no 2-year-old, male or female, ran faster than Blue Fire, who earned a 90 Brisnet Speed figure in her dominant wire-to-wire maiden-breaking score. The daughter of Aurelius Maximus is trained by Steve Asmussen and will see Jose Ortiz return to the irons.

Since breaking his maiden on debut in June, Valene Farms’ Smoken Wicked has only faced the creme de la creme of the sport’s freshman crop, and has $174,960 to show for it. The Dallas Stewart trainee earned 2 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby when finishing fourth to Chancer McPatrick in the Champagne (G1) at Saratoga, one of four open company stakes tries. Smoken Wicked racked up his second win last out against allowance company at Churchill Downs.

Smoken Wicked could mark a major milestone for Stewart, who currently sits at 999 career wins and has no other entries this week.

Standing in Smoken Wicked’s way on Saturday will be Maggi Moss’ Peluso Memorial winner Hay Jude. In just his second outing, the Tom Amoss trainee overcame a nightmare trip to narrowly defeat Voila Magic and Louisiana Jess, both of whom will look for revenge in Saturday’s Juvenile, which attracted seven runners.

Gerald Bruno Jr., Chasey Deville Pomier, and Jerry Caroom’s multi-millionaire Free Like a Girl took the 2023 Louisiana Champions Day Distaff, which was run on the dirt, but with the 2024 edition of the Distaff being written as the Ladies Turf, the 5-year-old mare has been entered along with eight other older fillies and mares in the $100,000 Ladies Sprint.

Exiting her latest stakes score going two turns in the local Valene Memorial, the 2022 Louisiana-bred Horse of the Year returns to six panels, a distance at which she has a 9-4-2-2 record. Five of Free Like a Girl’s six graded stakes placings have come going two turns, including finishing second to Idiomatic in the La Troienne (G1), but when going 7 furlongs in 2022 Charles Towns Oaks, Free Like a Girl ran second to Society.

Led by trainer Ronnie Ward’s Noneya, the Delmar R. Caldwell trifecta have all entered the Ladies Sprint for a shot to take on the all-time top earning Louisiana-bread, who has banked just shy of $2.1 million.

A perfect three-for-three as a 4-year-old, Allied Racing Stables’ Jack Hammer will return in the $100,000 Sprint not having raced since winning the local Eddie Johnston Memorial last March. Trainer Bret Calhoun tapped the current meet’s leading rider Jose Ortiz to pilot Jack Hammer, who will have his work cut out for him facing from top-to-bottom the most accomplished field on the card, including the trifecta from last year’s edition in Mangum, Bron and Brow, and Mike J. All but one of the thirteen entered in the Sprint can point to a stakes win on their resume. The Sprint serves as the Louisiana Champions Day finale.

Two 1 1/16 miles grass stakes have been carded for Louisiana Champions Day this year, and with the portable rail set at 24 feet on the Stall-Wilson turf course, both added money affairs attracted full fields of 11. The $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Turf will go as Race 7, and the female counterpart, as Race 9.

Winner of last year’s $100,000 Turf, Brittlyn Stable’s Behemah Star returns to rack up another for trainer Shane Wilson. Coming up 3/4 lengths short last out in the Morreale Memorial, the 6-year-old son of Star Guitar who hadn’t started since August might have needed that race.

Chief among Behemah Star’s competition is Allied Racing Stable’s 2021 and 2022 winner, Who Took the Money, the last horse who was able to repeat in the Turf. The Bret Calhoun trainee showed a strong effort in his prep, a local allowance where he ran a close fourth to Verstappen.

Oversubscribed at 12, the $100,000 Ladies Turf is slated as the penultimate race on the card. After finishing a game second last out in the Valene to Free Like a Girl, Brittlyn Stable’s 3-year-old filly Clearly a Test will make her first start on the sod for trainer Shane Wilson. Fellow 3-year-old Eye of the Pharaoh, a Coteau Grove Farm homebred trained by Steve Asmussen, has only raced twice but has been dominant in both two-turn turf races, winning by open lengths last out over local allowance company.

Full fields for all seven Louisiana Champions Day stakes can be found on Equibase: https://www.equibase.com/static/entry/FG121424USA-EQB.html.

Entries for the Dec. 21 Road to the Derby Kickoff Day will be drawn Saturday, Dec. 14. Led by the Gun Runner and Untapable, the final 2-year-old preps for the 151st Running of the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, eight stakes will be carded worth a combined $800,000 in added money purses.

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About Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots

Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, one of the nation’s oldest racetracks, has been in operation since 1872. Located in New Orleans, La, Fair Grounds, which is owned by Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ Global Select Market: CHDN), also operates a slot-machine gaming facility and 15 off-track betting parlors throughout Southeast Louisiana. The 153rd Thoroughbred Racing Season–highlighted by the 112th running of the Louisiana Derby–will run from Nov. 22, 2024 through March 23, 2025. More information is available online at www.fgno.com.