Take Charge Brandi to miss Rebel Stakes, Kentucky Oaks

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Take Charge Brandi will miss both the Grade 2, $750,000 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Saturday and the Kentucky Oaks after the champion 2-year-old filly of 2014 was diagnosed with a non-displaced bone chip in her right knee, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said on Tuesday.

The defection means there will be no historical matchup of last year’s 2-year-old champions in the Rebel, which remains the target for American Pharoah, the champion 2-year-old male of 2014.

Take Charge Brandi is scheduled to be shipped Wednesday to Kentucky to Dr. Larry Bramlage for further evaluation, Lukas said. She is to be rehabilitated at Oaklawn.

“She’ll be out 60 days,” Lukas said. “She’ll have stall rest 30, walk 30, then go back in training. She’ll be out until May 15.”

Lukas said Bramlage will determine whether to place a pin in the knee to accelerate healing. Lukas said with rest, the chip, which is still attached, would calcify. He said Take Charge Brandi could return to action as early as midsummer. Lukas said Take Charge Brandi was diagnosed Tuesday.

“This is gut-wrenching,” he said. “[But] we are going to bring her back. She’ll have a full race career.”

Willis Horton, a resident of Arkansas who raced champion Will Take Charge, owns Take Charge Brandi.

“I was looking forward to Saturday,” Horton said Tuesday. “We’ve been real lucky with her, never had a pimple on her. I’m sick.”

Horton said he now will look forward to Take Charge Brandi resuming racing later in the year.

Take Charge Brandi has won four stakes in her last four starts, a streak that started in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 1. Overall, the daughter of Giant’s Causeway has won 5 of 9 starts and $1,680,126.