Will Take Charge gets in his Whitney work

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After postponing his work one day due to track conditions, trainer D. Wayne Lukas finally was able to send 2013 Travers winner Will Take Charge out to work three furlongs over a wet and sealed Oklahoma training track Tuesday in his final major prep for Saturday’s Grade 1 Whitney.

Will Take Charge and stablemate Henry Jones were the first horses on the track when it opened for training at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday. With exercise rider Allison Walker aboard, Will Take Charge broke off a couple of lengths behind Henry Jones but wasted little time passing his target. Will Take Charge was then kept to steady urging by Walker to complete three-eighths in 35.71 seconds while finishing more than 10 lengths clear of his workmate.

“We intended to go yesterday. That didn’t work, but we weren’t going to do any more with him on Monday than we did today, and I really liked the way he blew out this morning,” Lukas said. “I wanted him to really zip through the stretch to get focused, and he looked good. I didn’t want him to gallop out too much, but he was getting away from the girl a little bit from the pole. He was really rolling at the 3 1/2, so he got a lot out of it.”

Lukas worked Will Take Charge over a sloppy track despite the fact that two of his worst races came over similar surfaces, including his eighth-place finish in the 2013 Kentucky Derby.

“I think that was a long time ago,” said Lukas. “In training him over a wet surface, which we have several times in the past, we never felt like that was a factor. We always felt real comfortable with him there. He’s definitely going into this race every bit as good as he was going into the Travers last summer. He loves this type of speed track, his weight is excellent. He really thrives up here.”