Take Charge Brandi mostly likely for Rebel Stakes

By: SPORTS NETWORK

Hot Springs, AR (SportsNetwork.com) - Champion filly Take Charge Brandi is now more than likely to start versus the boys in the $750,000 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Saturday, March 14.

Owned by Willis Horton and trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, Take Charge Brandi was not entered in this week's Honeybee Stakes for 3-year-old fillies making a start in the following Saturday's Rebel almost definite.

"I really want to find out how good she is," Horton said. "If she can beat the boys, I think her better chance of doing that is early than later in the year, because the boys will start really gaining. I'm just wanting to take a chance on beating the boys. I'm just trying to build her resume up."

The 1 1/16-mile Rebel offers 50 points to the winning 3-year-old toward a start in the Kentucky Derby on May 2.

This past Monday morning at Oaklawn, Take Charge Brandi worked five furlongs in 1:01.80.

In her seasonal debut, Take Charge Brandi, ridden for the first time by Jon Court, was the 2-5 favorite in the Martha Washington Stakes and held off Sarah Sis to win the mile race. The jockey for the Rebel has not been decided.

Take Charge Brandi broke her maiden in her debut at Churchill Downs last June. She was second at Saratoga in the Schuylerville and fifth in the Adirondack Stakes. The filly followed with a fifth in the Pocahontas at Churchill and was eighth in Keeneland's Alcibiades. She won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita as a 61-1 longshot.

The Eclipse Award winner won the Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos on Dec. 13 to finish her 2014 season. That victory came just three weeks after capturing the Delta Downs Princess Stakes on Nov. 22.

The filly has won five of nine starts for $1,680,126.