Warrior's Charge likely to lead cavalry in return

The colt Warrior’s Charge is well named.

In his three route races, he has flown headlong out of the gate, ready for a fight. He is aggressive racing on the lead, with a strong galloping pace he’s been able to maintain over a distance of ground.

The style produced a pair of robust wins last spring at Oaklawn Park and led to a strong performance in the Preakness Stakes, where Warrior’s Charge’s desire to get to the front wound up costing him in the end. His opening quarter-mile in the Triple Crown’s second leg went in a demanding 22.50 seconds, his half in a taxing 46.16, but even after the other pace horses melted away, Warrior’s Charge battled on, eventually succumbing to victorious War of Will, finishing a close fourth.

Warrior’s Charge was being aimed toward the Indiana Derby in July when he suffered a case of colic that cost him summer races. He returns to action, a very interesting prospect for 2020, in the featured seventh race Wednesday at Fair Grounds. And listening to trainer Brad Cox, Warrior’s Charge, campaigned by Ten Strike Racing and Madaket Stables, looks like the same horse at the end of his 3-year-old season as he was this past spring.

“That horse is doing great. He’s training as well as he can train,” Cox said. “He looks like a serious horse. He’s fast and he can carry his speed.”

Warrior’s Charge is by Munnings out of Battling Brook, by Broken Vow. The pedigree doesn’t obviously tilt toward two turns, but as soon as Cox stretched him out last spring Warrior’s Charge took off, winning an Oaklawn maiden race by six lengths and a first-level allowance by 6 1/2, geared down the final 50 yards yet still earning a 98 Beyer Speed Figure.

“This hopefully isn’t his best race. It’s a stepping-stone to next year,” Cox said.

Warrior’s Charge doesn’t have to bring his best to win, but he’ll need a representative performance to handle Gun It, the leading challenger in a second-level allowance race with a $40,000 claiming option carded for 1 1/16 miles on dirt. Only six were entered in the seventh of nine races on the first Wednesday card of the meet.

Three-year-old Gun It, a Tapit colt who sold for $2.6 million at a yearling auction, brims with talent but has yet to develop mental acuity to augment it. He was an eye-catching maiden winner about a year ago at Fair Grounds and following a layoff of more than seven months captured a first-level allowance race over a Churchill one-turn mile by 5 3/4 lengths Nov. 20. Even there, Gun It pulled hard during the early and middle stages and despite jockey Ricardo Santana Jr.’s most strenuous efforts failed to change leads through the length of the homestretch while racing with his head cocked toward the stands.

If Gun It can focus on the task at hand he’ll give Warrior’s Charge a fight Wednesday. If he can’t, he’ll be raising the white flag.