Take Charge Brandi points to Honeybee on road to Kentucky Oaks

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Champion Take Charge Brandi will continue on the path to the Kentucky Oaks, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Sunday, the morning after her determined win over Sarah Sis in the $100,000 Martha Washington at Oaklawn Park.

Lukas said the road will go through Arkansas as the remaining meet objectives for Take Charge Brandi are the Grade 3, $150,000 Honeybee on March 7 and the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy on April 4.

Take Charge Brandi won the Eclipse Award as outstanding 2-year-old filly of 2014 for a campaign that included wins in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, the Grade 3 Delta Downs Princess, and the Grade 1 Starlet. The Martha Washington win was her fourth straight stakes score and her first race at 3.

“We’re thinking Oaks,” Lukas said. “That’s a long ways away down the road, but we’re looking right now at getting her back for another championship.”

Lukas said in the week leading up to the Martha Washington that he loved the determination Take Charge Brandi showed winning the Starlet at Los Alamitos in her season finale Dec. 13. That fighting spirit reappeared in the Martha Washington, in which after setting the pace on a laboring kind of track, Take Charge Brandi was challenged along the inside from a late-running Sarah Sis and responded with heart.

“She does what champions do,” Lukas said Sunday. “When she saw she was going to be tested, she surged ahead again. She really knows how to win races. She did it at Los Alamitos, and she did it again yesterday.”

Take Charge Brandi won by a head, in the one-mile race that ended at the sixteenth pole. She covered the distance on a fast track in 1:39.66. She will move back to 1 1/16 miles for the Honeybee, the distance of her wins in the Breeders’ Cup and Starlet.

“It was a comeback race yesterday, and it was good to see her back in the winner’s circle and to get this thing started,” Lukas said. “I thought the race fit our program really well, the mile yesterday. She did everything she was supposed to do.”

Take Charge Brandi races for Willis Horton, a resident of Arkansas. She is the second consecutive champion for Horton and Lukas, who had the champion 3-year-old of 2013 in Will Take Charge. Take Charge Brandi’s dam is a half-sister to Will Take Charge.

Sarah Sis also is targeting the Honeybee, trainer Ingrid Mason said Sunday. Sarah Sis was making her two-turn debut in the Martha Washington after running second by a neck to the undefeated Promise Me Silver in the $100,000 Dixie Belle at six furlongs at Oaklawn. Sarah Sis took the overland route after breaking last in the Martha Washington, traveling four wide on the final turn, then moving toward the rail late when challenging Take Charge Brandi.

“She normally breaks really sharp, but she had a bad start,” Mason said. “She hopped at the start.”

From there, jockey Julio Felix settled her to the outside of horses rather than heading for the rail in the Martha Washington.

“The reason he said he did that was because he was concerned she’d try to run off because she was going from three-quarters to a mile,” Mason said of the stretchout. “So he didn’t want her trying to go up on horses’ heels and then get all that dirt in her face, which she really hasn’t had before. She’s a pretty nice filly. We’re all very excited about her. She’s a young filly just learning how to run.”

Sarah Sis races for Joe Ragsdale. She is a daughter of Sharp Humor. Last year, she was second in the Arlington-Washington Lassie at Arlington Park.