Will Take Charge, Golden Ticket ready for Foster

Will Take Charge (outside) needs a return to his winning Clark form for the Foster (Jamie Newell/Horsephotos.com)

A pair of major players for next Saturday’s 33rd running of
the Grade 1, $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap — Will Take Charge and
Golden Ticket — tuned-up for that important engagement with sharp five-furlong
workouts over the fast track on Friday at Churchill Downs.

The D. Wayne Lukas-trained Will Take Charge, the reigning
Eclipse three-year-old male champion, breezed five
furlongs in 1:00 1/5, the second-fastest move of 17 at the distance on the day
under the Twin Spires.

Grade 1 hero Golden Ticket, the Ken McPeek-trained runner-up in last year’s Stephen Foster,
worked in-company with stablemate Flashy American, a Grade 3-scoring five-year-old mare prepping
for a run in the Grade 2, $200,000 Fleur de Lis Handicap on the Foster undercard.

The five-year-old son of Speightstown covered the distance in
1:01, while Flashy American completed her work in 1:01 1/5.

The Stephen Foster is part of the Breeders’ Cup “Win and
You’re In” Classic Division. Victory in the 1 1/8-mile race awards the winner a guaranteed spot in the starting gate for
this year’s $5 million Classic at Santa Anita, along with a travel stipend of
$10,000 for the journey to Southern California.

Golden Ticket (outside) likely faces Alysheba winner Moonshine Mullin (inside) once again in the Foster (Jamie Newell/Horsephotos.com)

McPeek said Golden Ticket, second behind Moonshine Mullin in the Alysheba
last out, would probably be his only participant in the Stephen Foster. He had
earlier considered running Bellarmine, a winner of three-of-four career races on dirt at Churchill
Downs, in the race.

Bellarmine is now being considered for a possible bid for
the Grade 3, $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker at Iowa’s Prairie Meadows on June
28. But that plan is far from definite.

“We’ll see,” McPeek stated. “If it’s a short field, we might be tempted to go
into the Stephen Foster. He likes it here.”

Flashy American will probably face La Troienne winner
On Fire Baby in the Fleur de Lis, but McPeek is happy with the progress of his
five-year-old Flashy Bull mare. She took 11 starts — including five in maiden
claiming races — before notching her first career victory in a race for $25,000
claiming horses in July 2012 at Saratoga.

Flashy American will attempt to parlay her Sixty Sails win into Fleur de Lis victory (Jamie Newell/Horsephotos.com)

“She’s a big, solid filly,” McPeek said. “I love what she does and she’s in a
nice rhythm. We’re pretty proud of her.”

Another possible contender for the Stephen Foster appeared
on Friday’s worktab as Mylute breezed a swift half-mile in :48 under the Twin
Spires. The move by the Tom Amoss-trained Midnight Lute four-year-old was the second-fastest of 49 at the distance.

Mylute is coming off a fourth-place finish in the Alysheba and won an allowance at Fair Grounds in his only other
start of the year. He ran fifth in last year’s Kentucky Derby and finished third in the Preakness.

While Will Take Charge
and Golden Ticket turned in the second and third-fastest five-furlong works on
Friday at Churchill, the quickest move at that distance belonged to Ria Antonia.

The sophomore daughter of
Rockport Harbor zipped over the distance in 1:00 in her first major work
since she finished last of 10 in a match against males in the Preakness nearly
three weeks ago.