Take Charge Brandi wins another for Lukas

Take Charge Brandi, the D. Wayne Lukas-trained 2-year-old who last month scored an upset at odds of 61-1 in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, all but locked up the Eclipse Award for her division Saturday.

The front-running daughter of Giant's Causeway wired the $350,000 Grade I Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos, holding off late runner Feathered by a neck in the seven-horse field.

Take Charge Brandi covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:35.61 with jockey Victor Espinoza aboard, paying $4.60 to win.

Also a winner in the Grade III Delta Downs Princess Stakes on Nov. 22, the Willis Horton-owned star should go on to take the juvenile filly Eclipse Award after Saturday's performance.

"I was a little surprised at first that she made that easy a lead, but once she gets to that cruising speed, she's so quick it's hard for the others to keep up with her," Espinoza said. "I was just focused on my horse in the stretch. It seemed like when she felt them coming, she dug in and wasn't going to let them by."

The half sister of Will Take Charge, last year's champion 3-year-old, has excelled only recently. After winning her debut in maiden special weight competition June 22 at Churchill Downs, Take Charge Brandi moved up to graded stakes competition and didn't notch another victory until the Breeders' Cup.

Now, though, three straight wins worth 10 points apiece have positioned Take Charge Brandi atop the Road to the Kentucky Oaks leaderboard, well ahead of second-place Angela Renee (12 points total) and third-place Condo Commando (11 points total).

"It's completely changed her since we decided just to leave her alone and let her run her race," Lukas said. "We tried to get too cute with her during the summer and finally, I woke up and said I'll just leave her alone. We made that decision and it's worked.

"The whole purpose of coming here was to take the doubt out of (the Eclipse race) if we could and I didn't think we had to win to do that. I told Willis that if we ran 1-2-3 we would still be very much in the picture."

Saturday's win marked Lukas' eighth Starlet win in a race that, until this year, was contested at the now-closed Hollywood Park. Also, Lukas became the first trainer to win a Grade I quarter horse and thoroughbred event at Los Alamitos.

Jonathan Lintner can be reached at (502) 582-4199. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanLintner.