Leading the Test 'Charge'

Champion Take Charge Brandi (Giant's Causeway)–forced to miss a showdown with American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) in the Mar. 14 GII Rebel S. due to a non-displaced chip in her right knee–is being aimed at a return for Saratoga's seven-furlong GI Test S. Aug. 8.

“We've had her galloping for 30 days [at Churchill Downs with trainer D. Wayne Lukas] and we re X-rayed her leg [Tuesday morning] and everything looked perfect,” owner Willis Horton commented. “We sent the X-rays to Dr. Bramlage–I haven't heard back from him at this time yet–but all indications are that we should be able to put her back in more serious training as early as tomorrow.”

Take Charge Brandi (longshot) with Victor Espinoza up wins the 2014 Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita Park, CA 10.14.2014

Tabbed as a 'TDN Rising Star' off a debut score beneath the Twin Spires last June, the chestnut caught fire after upsetting the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at 61-1 at Santa Anita Nov. 1. Subsequent wins in the GIII Delta Downs Princess S. and GI Starlet S. locked up champion 2-year-old filly honors, and she kept the streak alive with a narrow victory in Oaklawn's Martha Washington S. Jan. 31, her lone attempt at three. Bramlage performed surgery on Take Charge Brandi two days before the Rebel, inserting a stabilizing pin to her right knee.

“Right now, we've got it mapped out to go to the Test S. at Saratoga, the [GI] Cotillion S. at Parx, and then back to Keeneland for the Breeders' Cup,” Horton said of Take Charge Brandi's projected 2015 campaign.

Take Charge Brandi, a $435,000 KEESEP yearling purchase, was produced by a half-sister to Horton's 2013 GI Travers S. winner and champion 3-year-old male Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song).

“It's been tremendous,” Horton concluded. “She's been outstanding and we're very fortunate that she come along a year after Will Take Charge. We've had a good joyful ride, I'll promise you that, and it's really been great.”