Take Charge Brandi resumes serious training

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Take Charge Brandi, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2014, has resumed serious training at Churchill Downs and is approaching her first breeze, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said this week.

Take Charge Brandi was taken out of training in early March at Oaklawn Park with a tiny, non-displaced chip in a knee. Last year, she earned a divisional Eclipse Award by winning her final three starts, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She began her 3-year-old season by winning the Jan. 31 Martha Washington at Oaklawn and was being pointed to the Rebel Stakes against males when the injury was diagnosed.

“It was really a minor deal,” said Lukas, who trains the chestnut filly for Willis Horton. “She was out for 60 days, and then we brought her back and jogged her for a month before she started galloping in the mornings. She looks tremendous. She’s gotten bigger and stronger and filled out some more. We’re really excited to have her back.”

Lukas has no particular comeback spot in mind but noted that Take Charge Brandi will be among his string moving to Saratoga next month.

Meanwhile, Lukas said he enjoyed all the accolades lavished on his longtime client Ahmed Zayat when Triple Crown winner American Pharoah was paraded here Saturday night. Lukas was among those on hand.

“We had photos and everything else taken together,” he said. “It was a real nice deal.”

Two of Lukas’s three wins at the Churchill spring meet have come with Zayat horses: Mordi’s Miracle, who runs back Friday, won May 31, and Swagner, who won a maiden-claiming race Sunday, just hours after Zayat and his family left town. Those winners have helped salvage what would have been an awful meet for Lukas, who had had 35 starters going into this week.

Mr. Z, the 3-year-old colt named for Zayat, runs Saturday for another Lukas client, Calumet Farm, in the Ohio Derby at ThistleDown. Calumet owner Brad Kelley bought Mr. Z privately from Zayat a few days before the May 16 Preakness in which the colt wound up a distant fifth behind American Pharoah.

◗ Veteran trainer Garry Simms has been unable to spend much time at his Churchill barn recently while continuing to undergo chemotherapy treatments for bone cancer.

“He’s going through a tough time right now,” said his son and top assistant, 23-year-old Zack Simms. “He wanted to take a trip to Las Vegas but just hasn’t been feeling well enough. He’s had more than 100 treatments.”

Garry Simms, 63, was diagnosed with his illness in January 2010 but has been remarkably upbeat and resilient throughout his struggle. His many friends and colleagues in racing often pass along words of kindness and encouragement through his son.

“He appreciates it,” said Zack Simms.

◗ The lone stakes at Churchill this weekend is the $65,000 Roxelana, a six-furlong race for fillies and mares on Saturday. Beyond that, four stakes remain at the 38-day meet, and all will be held on the Downs After Dark finale set for a week from Saturday, June 27.

Those races are the Grade 2, $200,000 Firecracker; the Grade 3, $100,000 Bashford Manor; the $100,000 Debutante; and the $65,000 Kelly’s Landing.

◗ Trainer Chris Hartman said this week that Alsvid will make his next start in the Grade 2 Smile Sprint on July 5 at Gulfstream Park.

Alsvid has won his last three starts, the latest being the May 30 Aristides at Churchill, where he dealt defending sprint champion Work All Week his first defeat in 11 races on dirt. Work All Week, based at the nearby Trackside training center, also is under consideration for the six-furlong Smile Sprint.

◗ Veteran jockey Jesus Castanon is expected to be sidelined another six weeks or so after sustaining small fractures in his fibula and tailbone in a spill here last Friday. Castanon, 42, was aboard Mariano Intheninth when the 3-year-old suffered a catastrophic breakdown approaching the wire.

◗ Heading into the final seven-day stretch of the meet, Corey Lanerie held a 35-30 lead over Julien Leparoux atop the jockey standings as he seeks to be the leading rider for the eighth time in the last nine Churchill meets. Mike Maker led the trainer standings with 16 wins, followed by Ian Wilkes and Dale Romans with 12 each.

◗ Keeneland was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame at the annual awards dinner and ceremony Wednesday night at the Crowne Plaza in Louisville. Six individuals also were inducted. Bronze plaques of all Hall honorees are on display inside Freedom Hall in Louisville.