Take Charge Brandi kicks off 3-year-old campaign in Martha Washington

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer D. Wayne Lukas is well versed in bringing out a champion, having trained 26 of them in his Hall of Fame career. Lukas’s latest is Take Charge Brandi, who will launch her 3-year-old season Saturday in the $100,000 Martha Washington at Oaklawn Park.

Take Charge Brandi will be making her first start since winning the Eclipse Award for outstanding 2-year-old filly of 2014. She won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, the Grade 3 Delta Downs Princess, and the Grade 1 Starlet in her final three races last year to collect the hardware for owner Willis Horton of Marshall, Ark.

Now, it’s showtime again. It’s a place Lukas has occupied with a number of horses through the years, bringing a runner out for a new season following a championship season.

“I think your credibility is established,” Lukas said. “You’re not going to win every time you want, but you have to prepare yourself to give yourself a chance to win every time. And so what you do is: You have that credibility, and you go over there confident that not only do you think you got the best horse, but so do all the people that bet on him. You go over there, but it’s got to happen. You got to keep proving yourself. They don’t hand it to you. They won’t let you mail it in.”

Take Charge Brandi will take on six others in the Martha Washington, a one-mile race that ends at the sixteenth pole. Her rivals include the stakes-placed runners Perfect Fit and Sarah Sis, as well as the impressive allowance winner Indian Annie.

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Key contenders

Take Charge Brandi (Last 3 Beyers: 87-85-83)

* Take Charge Brandi will be making her first start since the Starlet on Dec. 13 at Los Alamitos. She has since been based at Oaklawn.

“We’re anxious to get started,” Lukas said. “I feel comfortable where we got her, at least for this opening of the new season. The mile’s a good spot coming back, and so we’ll go over there optimistic.”

* Take Charge Brandi set the pace in the Starlet and fought for a half-length win in the 1 1/16-mile race.

“Her Starlet probably stamped her as a true competitor, as well as a champion,” Lukas said. “I mean, that day, two, maybe three horses took a run at her, and it was refreshing to see – like in the old days with Serena’s Song, Flanders, and Lady’s Secret – how they laid it down when they hooked them.”

* Take Charge Brandi will break from post 6, the same gate she started from in the Delta Downs Princess, where she tracked the pace in the one-mile race before going on to a 1 1/2-length win Nov. 22.

* Jon Court has the mount Saturday.

Indian Annie (Last 3 Races: 78-80-46)

* She made her two-turn debut in a $50,000 optional claimer at a mile at Oaklawn and rolled to a 4 3/4-length win over fellow Martha Washington entrant Sweet Corinna.

* Ricardo Santana Jr. has the mount for trainer Steve Asmussen.