Will Take Charge works for Stephen Foster start

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Not since Kentucky Derby Day had such prominent stakes horses sped down the Churchill Downs stretch, though on Tuesday, they did so training in the morning, not racing in the afternoon.

Among the horses to breeze Tuesday were Will Take Charge, the champion 3-year-old male of 2013 who ran sixth as the favorite in the Alysheba Stakes on Oaks Day; Central Banker, the winner of the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on Derby Day; and Midnight Lucky, the Grade 1 Humana Distaff winner that same afternoon.

Also working Tuesday were Marchman, a winner of two consecutive graded sprints on turf; Global View, who closed to take the Grade 2 American Turf on Derby Day; and the comebacking Silver Max, who recorded his first breeze of the year after finishing 2013 with a fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Three of this group of six worked five furlongs, with Will Take Charge, expected to race in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill on June 14, going fastest, covering the distance in 1:00.60. Midnight Lucky was timed in 1:01, and Global View went in 1:00.80 while working on turf.

Central Banker, Marchman, and Silver Max each went a half-mile, with Central Banker going in an easy 51.40 seconds on the fast main track. Marchman and Silver Max breezed on firm turf, with the former breezing in 50.60 seconds and the latter in 49.60.

Central Banker remains targeted for the Grade 1 Met Mile at Belmont Park on June 7, trainer Al Stall said Tuesday, while Marchman is being pointed by trainer Bret Calhoun toward the $150,000 Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup, a five-furlong turf dash at Penn National on May 31.

As for Midnight Lucky, who won the Humana Distaff after almost a year away from the races, trainer Bob Baffert texted Tuesday that her next race is undecided.

Still absent from the work tab since winning the Kentucky Oaks has been Untapable, though she has been galloping.

Her stablemate Tapiture, 15th in the Kentucky Derby, breezed five furlongs Monday at Churchill in 1:02.80, while about five miles away at the Churchill Downs Trackside, another Kentucky Derby runner, Vicar’s in Trouble, who finished last, went a half-mile in 49 seconds.

◗ After a few days off, racing resumes Thursday at Churchill with the feature being a $52,000, five-furlong turf sprint for first-level allowance horses. Only four of the nine entrants are winners on grass, and of that group, Gibson’s Bullet possesses the strongest grass form. He is favored at 8-5 odds with Stewart Elliott named to ride by trainer Mike Tomlinson.