Will Take Charge, Strong Mandate post nice moves over sloppy Oaklawn track

Will Take Charge will try to carry his late 2013 form into the New Year (NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography)

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas didn’t let Sunday morning rain at Oaklawn
Park throw his
schedule off and sent several horses in his barn out for workouts, including
champion Will Take Charge and Strong Mandate.

Will Take Charge
breezed a half-mile in :49 4/5 over the sloppy track, while the three-year-old Strong
Mandated posted the bullet, best of 76, at the same distance in :48 3/5.

Will Take Charge scored in Oaklawn’s Smarty Jones and Rebel
Stakes last year before going on to capture Travers, Pennsylvania Derby and
Clark Handicap with a nose second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic thrown in.

The
four-year-old chestnut son of Unbridled’s Song is schedule to leave Oaklawn on Monday for South Florida, where he will
make his seasonal debut as the 123-pound highweight in the Grade 1, $500,000 Donn Handicap at
Gulfstream Park on February 9.

Owner Willis Horton said earlier this week that Will Take Charge’s
early season campaign will consist of the Donn; Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap
on March 8; and
the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap on April 12.

Strong Mandate romped by 9 3/4 lengths in his only start over an off track (NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography)

Hopeful hero Strong Mandate, last seen running third in the
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in early November, is preparing to start his year in Oaklawn’s
Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest, the highlight of the February 17 Presidents Day
card.

“His work was just awesome,” Lukas stated about the Tiznow sophomore. “I was
really impressed. It had to be the bullet.”

One of those Strong Mandate will face in the Southwest is Springboard Mile winner Louies
Flower, who took one step closer to making his seasonal debut in that 1
1/16-mile contest when breezing five furlongs in 1:02 2/5 Sunday over Oaklawn’s
sloppy track.

“It was a very good work,” trainer Bret Calhoun declared. “We had actually planned
to work him a little harder, but in light of the track, we decided to be
conservative. We’ve been lucky that despite weather lately, we’ve been able to
keep him on schedule. He’s exactly where we want him to be.”

Louies Flower will be looking for his fourth straight
victory in the Southwest. The Flower Alley colt broke his maiden in his third start
going 5 1/2 furlongs on October 2 at Remington, and has since won his last two starts at one
mile.