Take Charge Brandi might face males in Rebel

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Take Charge Brandi, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2014, is being considered for a start against males in the Grade 2, $750,000 Rebel at Oaklawn Park on March 14, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Wednesday. Lukas said the other option is to keep Take Charge Brandi in her division for the Grade 3, $150,000 Honeybee on March 7.

“The next start being discussed is the Rebel or the Honeybee,” Lukas said. “It will be one place or the other.”

If Take Charge Brandi were to run in the Rebel, it would set the stage for a showdown of last year's 2-year-old champions as American Pharoah, the male champion juvenile of 2014, is targeting the Rebel for his first start of 2015.

The long-range plan for Take Charge Brandi remains the Kentucky Oaks on May 1 at Churchill Downs, said Lukas, who trains the champion for Willis Horton. Lukas said he does not take lightly the prospect of running a filly against the boys, and there will be many variables to debate in the immediate future.

“There are so many considerations to be discussed,” he said. “It’s a carefully thought-out process.”

Lukas, who won the 1988 Kentucky Derby with the filly Winning Colors, said the first consideration will be how Take Charge Brandi trains and, in particular, how she works. Lukas said he and Willis also will be looking at who is pointing for the Rebel, how the race might develop from a pace standpoint, and how the timing would work with regard to Kentucky Oaks preps, as her final steppingstone could come in the Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn or the Ashland at Keeneland.

Take Charge Brandi has won four stakes in her last four starts, a streak that dates back to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 1. In her most recent start, she won the $100,000 Martha Washington at Oaklawn in her 3-year-old debut Jan. 31. She is based at Oaklawn.