Take Charge Brandi to get early 2015 start

Hot Springs, AR (SportsNetwork.com) – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Take Charge Brandi is probable for an earlier than expected start to her 3- year-old season with a start in the $100,000 Martha Washington Stakes Jan. 31 at Oaklawn Park.

“I think the mile is a logical choice,” Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said, referring to the Martha Washington distance.

Monday morning at Oaklawn the filly worked a half-mile in 51 seconds.

“She’s so sharp I can’t hardly do anything with her. She’s just tearing the barn down, so I might as well run her,” Lukas indicated.

Owned by Willis Horton, Take Charge Brandi won the Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos on Dec. 13 to finish her 2014 season. That victory came just three weeks after capturing the Delta Downs Princess Stakes on Nov. 22.

Take Charge Brandi broke her maiden in her debut at Churchill Downs last June. She was second at Saratoga in the Schuylerville and fifth in the Adirondack Stakes. The filly followed with a fifth in the Pocahontas at Churchill and was eighth in Keeneland’s Alcibiades. She won the Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita as a 61-1 longshot.

Lukas has Take Charge Brandi pointed toward the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill on Friday, May 1.

The filly has won four of eight starts for $1,620,126.

Categorized in: Horses