Oaklawn Park: Will Take Charge breezes ahead of 2014 debut

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Horse of the Year finalist Will Take Charge was out early Sunday morning at Oaklawn Park, breezing five furlongs in a maintenance move that came in the first set of workers. He worked in 1:02 on a track rated “good,” with temperatures in the high 30s.

Will Take Charge, who won the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs in his most recent start Nov. 29, last week was named a finalist for both Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old of 2013. He has been in a steady work pattern at his winter base of Oaklawn and could make his 4-year-old debut in either the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park in February or the Santa Anita Handicap in March, according to trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

Will Take Charge on Sunday came onto the track as soon as it opened and warmed up to just past the finish line under regular exercise rider Rudy Quevedo. He went into his work at the five-furlong pole and, in the first sixteenth of a mile, smoothly moved past a set of horses who had broken off in front of him, taking the outside route.

Clockers caught Will Take Charge in fractions of 12 seconds for the opening furlong, 24.40 for the opening quarter-mile, and 37.20 for three furlongs. His final quarter was in 24.80, according to Oaklawn head clocker Jim Hamilton.

Will Take Charge, who in November was second by a nose in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, will race this year for the partnership of Willis Horton and Three Chimneys LLC, the latter having purchased a 50 percent interest in the horse from Horton in a deal announced in December.

Lukas said Will Take Charge would race in Horton’s silks and that Luis Saez has the mount. Will Take Charge’s wins last year included the Travers as well as the Rebel at Oaklawn.