HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Champion Will Take Charge, the runner-up to Game On Dude in the Santa Anita Handicap last Saturday, was scheduled to return to his Oaklawn base Wednesday, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said this week. Lukas said the horse is being pointed for the Grade 2, $600,000 Oaklawn Handicap on April 12.

Will Take Charge earned a career-high Beyer of 113 for finishing 1 3/4 lengths behind wire-to-wire winner Game On Dude in the 1 1/4-mile Santa Anita Handicap, which went in 1:58.17.

On Tuesday, trainer Tom Amoss sent Delta Jackpot winner Rise Up out to work a bullet five furlongs in 1:00. It was Rise Up’s second work since he finished seventh in the Feb. 22 Risen Star Stakes, his 3-year-old debut.

Rise Up, a front-running horse, basically lost all chance at the start when he broke very poorly and had to rush into contention around the first turn. Rise Up has worn blinkers in both post-Risen Star works, and Amoss said he plans to employ the equipment March 29 in the Louisiana Derby.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Grade 2-winning 3-year-old Kobe’s Back lost all chance of winning his two-turn debut last December. He’ll get a second chance at the trip at Oaklawn Park on Saturday, when he runs in the Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel Stakes.

Kobe’s Back will be one of the top choices in the 1 1/16-mile race, which was expected to draw seven to nine horses when entries closed Wednesday. Other leading contenders include Tapiture and Strong Mandate, the one-two finishers in last month’s Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The $350,000 Santa Margarita Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita on Saturday will be a race for locals.

After trainer Bill Mott said Tuesday that Close Hatches would start in Saturday’s $200,000 Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn Park, the Santa Margarita lost its potential shipper among the 12 nominees.

With an assist from an inside-speed-favoring racing surface Saturday, Heitai aced his first test against open stakes rivals since his connections began focusing him solely on sprint races. Beating race favorite and defending champion Delaunay to the lead – and giving him three pounds under the race’s allowance conditions – Heitai won the Duncan Kenner Stakes by five lengths.

Former trainer Shelley Riley, whose book “Casual Lies: A Triple Crown Adventure” was published last year, is a semifinalist for the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, sponsored by Castleton Lyons Farm.

Riley’s book recounts the whirlwind events of the 1992 Triple Crown series and her travels with Casual Lies, the $7,500 yearling purchase who ran second in the Kentucky Derby.

Marks Mine, Northern California’s top female sprinter, will be entered in Saturday’s $50,000-added Camilla Urso at six furlongs instead of venturing south for her next start.

Expected to challenge Marks Mine are Brilliant Melody, who has won two straight, Butterfly Soul, Esperanza Latina, Koby Jo, and Rathbaun. Possible entrants include Happybirthdaybaby, Hollywood Miss, Minds Eyes, and Miss Lucky Sevens.

Golden Gate Fields is bringing back the Alcatraz Stakes after an absence of one year. The $75,000 Alcatraz, a one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds, will be held Sunday, May 11.

The Alcatraz was dropped from the 2013 stakes schedule and was not a part of the original 2014 stakes schedule. It was formerly run at 1 1/16 miles.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, as Phil Lebherz found out.

But that’s all right with him because weekly lunches at the old Bay Meadows led him to the passion of his life: horse racing.

It’s a passion that has taken root not only as an owner but now as a breeder with his purchase last year of Premier Equine Center in the California central-valley town of Oakdale.

“I would go to Bay Meadows for lunch,” he said of a weekly gathering of friends. “One day, I asked someone how racing worked.”

Race 1