Take Charge Brandi to race at Oaklawn in 2015

CYPRESS, Calif. – Take Charge Brandi will race at Oaklawn Park in early 2015 in an attempt to extend a three-race winning streak from this fall that helped her clinch the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding 2-year-old filly of 2014.

Take Charge Brandi won the $350,500 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos on Saturday, her second Grade 1 win of the autumn. Lukas said in the winner’s circle that Take Charge Brandi will be at Oaklawn Park for the track’s winter-spring meeting, not far from owner Willis Horton’s home in Marshall, Ark.

At Oaklawn Park, Take Charge Brandi could run in stakes for 3-year-old fillies such as the $150,000 Honeybee Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on March 7 and the $400,000 Fantasy Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on April 4.

Prior to the Starlet, trainer D. Wayne Lukas was confident that Take Charge Brandi had done enough to merit the Eclipse Award. Her win in the Starlet solidified her status.

“I told some people before the race I’d like to take the doubt out of it,” he said. “I told Willis, ‘I thought we’d be okay if we were 1, 2, or 3.”

Take Charge Brandi won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on Nov. 1 in a 61-1 upset and followed with a win in the Grade 3 Delta Downs Princess Stakes in Louisiana on Nov. 22.

After those wins, Take Charge Brandi was the 6-5 favorite in the Starlet and won by a half-length over Feathered, who was fourth in the BC Juvenile Fillies. The victory was the fourth in eight starts for Take Charge Brandi, who has earned $1,620,126.

Ridden by Victor Espinoza, Take Charge Brandi was challenged by Majestic Presence, Maybellene, and Feathered in the stretch.

“It worked out so well,” Horton said. “I knew she was a quality filly. She kept digging in and digging in. Victor rode her perfectly.”

Lukas said that Take Charge Brandi’s winning streak coincides with his decision to allow the filly to race near the front, and to remind riders not to interfere with her extensively during races.

Take Charge Brandi won her debut at Churchill Downs in June but lost four consecutive graded stakes in New York and Kentucky before the Breeders’ Cup win.

“We got a little too confident in the summer,” Lukas said. “I woke up one day, and I said, ‘I think I’ll just leave her alone.’ ”

That approach extends to the way Take Charge Brandi is treated at the barn. She is not a filly who wants attention, Lukas said.

“We don’t clean her up and brush her,” he said. “She doesn’t like it.”