LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Oaklawn Handicap winner Will Take Charge, coming off a sixth-place finish as the 3-5 favorite in the Alysheba Stakes on May 2, will attempt to get back on track tonight at Churchill Downs in the Grade I $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap.
Will Take Charge, last year's 3-year-old champion who is owned by Marshall's Willis Horton, is the headliner on a Churchill Downs card that includes three other graded stakes -- the Grade II Fleur de Lis Handicap for fillies and mares, the Grade III Matt Winn for 3-year-olds and the Grade III Regret Handicap for 3-year-old fillies on the turf.
Each of the graded races includes horses who played prominent roles in Oaklawn Park's stakes program earlier this year.
Apple Blossom Handicap runner-up On Fire Baby, coming off a victory in the Grade I La Troienne at Churchill Downs on May 2, is one of the favorites in the $200,000 Fleur de Lis at 1 1/8 miles.
Southwest Stakes winner Tapiture, who finished 15th in the May 3 Kentucky Derby, is the 9-5 morning-line favorite in the $100,000 Matt Winn at 1 1/16th miles.
Fantasy Stakes runner-up Kiss Moon, trained by David Vance, is listed as 6-1 in the morning line for the Regret, her first attempt on turf.
Will Take Charge, who will be ridden by Gary Stevens with high weight of 123 pounds, never made a run in the Alysheba and was beaten 10 lengths.
"I think we'll just forget it happened and go on to the next one," trainer D. Wayne Lukas said of the Alysheba. "I think we're sitting right on a big one, hopefully. He's had a really good month."
Will Take Charge, a 4-year-old son of Unbridled's Song who has earned more than $3.6 million, recorded runner-up finishes in the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park in south Florida and the Santa Anita Handicap in Southern California before edging Revolutionary in the Oaklawn Handicap.
Revolutionary, with Mike Smith, is the 9-5 morning-line favorite in the field of nine. Post time for the Stephen Foster is 8:39 p.m. Central.
Revolutionary enters after rallying from 30 lengths back to win the Grade III Pimlico Special in Baltimore on May 16.
Will Take Charge edged Revolutionary by three-quarters of a length in the Oaklawn Handicap in a race that included a stewards' inquiry before the result was declared official.
Alysheba winner Moonshine Mullin, who will be ridden by Calvin Borel, brings a four-race victory streak into the Stephen Foster. Three of those victories came over allowance company at Oaklawn for trainer Randy Morse.
On Fire Baby, now a multiple a Grade 1 winner after a 2 3/4-length victory in the La Troienne, faces five rivals in the Fleur de Lis after ending a five-race losing streak in the La Troienne on May 3. She has won three of five starts over Churchill's main track, but has never hit the board at 1 1/8 miles.
On Fire Baby, a 5-year-old mare trained by Gary Hartlage, won the 2012 Apple Blossom for Anita Cauley.
Tapiture, who finished fourth in the Arkansas Derby and second in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn, fell off the Triple Crown trail after the Kentucky Derby, but is 9-5 in the morning line for trainer Steve Asmussen. He will be ridden by Rosie Napravnik for the first time.
Sports on 06/14/2014