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Will Take Charge retired with suspensory injury
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| Will Take Charge began to assert control over last year's three-year-old division in the Travers
(NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography) |
Last year's champion three-year-old colt
Will
Take Charge, who was expected to contest Saturday's Jockey Club Gold Cup en
route to the Breeders' Cup
Classic, has sustained a suspensory injury prompting his retirement. The
well-bred son of Unbridled's Song and multiple Grade 1-winning Broodmare of the
Year Take Charge Lady will enter stud at
Three Chimneys near
Midway, Kentucky, in 2015.
"Will Take Charge's retirement is particularly disappointing as we were
primed, as an older horse, to win the Classic this year which we lost by a
whisker last year," Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lukas said, referring to the
flashy chestnut's near-miss to the older Mucho Macho Man at Santa Anita last
November. "If the race were a mile and a quarter and two inches, Will Take
Charge's career earnings would be at nearly $6 million.
"This horse has done what few other horses can do any more. He is a different
kind of Unbridled's Song. He defeated the best three year olds in the country in
the Travers and then the best older horses in the Classic. He is a true champion
who ran to his blue-blooded pedigree. He proved himself to be the best of his
generation. He is a proud addition to my resume." |
Co-owner Willis Horton, who sold a half-share in the colt to Three Chimneys
late last year, sounded a similar theme.
"Will Take Charge is a horse of a lifetime, and I can't say enough about how
'hickory' he has been, starting 21 times all across the country against the
stiffest competition time after time," Horton said.
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| The flashy chestnut came within inches of Mucho Macho Man (far right) in the BC Classic...
(Breeders' Cup Ltd. Photo) |
"We have had the time of our lives with him, and met wonderful people all
across America. He's been a real fan favorite, and we think he'll be a Kentucky
breeders' favorite too! I also can't compliment Wayne enough on developing this
exceptionally talented horse into a champion. It's been one heck of a ride."Purchased by Horton for $425,000 as a
Keeneland September
yearling, Will Take Charge broke his maiden back at that venue in his second
start at two. He found the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs to be a
bridge too far next time, ending up last of 13, but rebounded with a solid
second in Remington's Springboard Mile.
The strapping colt began to strengthen up when wintering at Oaklawn. A game
winner of the Smarty Jones in his three-year-old debut, he was along for sixth
in a sloppy renewal of the Southwest, and outdueled his tenacious stablemate
Oxbow back on a fast track in the Rebel.
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Will Take Charge competed in all three legs of the Triple Crown without
success. He was hampered at a crucial stage in the
Kentucky Derby,
where he arguably would have finished closer than eighth with a clean trip. He
was subsequently a non-threatening seventh to Oxbow in the
Preakness and 10th
behind Palace Malice in the
Belmont.
But Will Take Charge turned the corner at Saratoga. Taking the blinkers off
for the first time since his career debut, he was a hard-charging runner-up to
Palace Malice in the Jim Dandy.
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| ...and capped his championship season by defeating Game On Dude in the Clark
(Wendy Wooley/EquiSport Photos) |
The next piece of the puzzle came with a rider change to Luis Saez, and they
proved quite a team. Will Take Charge surged late to deny Moreno in the Travers,
leaving Orb back in third and Palace Malice in fourth. He continued his progress
in the Pennsylvania Derby, rolling 2 1/4 lengths clear of Moreno.After nearly beating Mucho Macho Man in the Breeders' Cup Classic -- his
first attempt versus older horses -- Will Take Charge capped his remarkable,
11-race season by collaring venerable Game On Dude in the Clark Handicap at
Churchill. His second half heroics clinched an Eclipse Award as champion
three-year-old male.
Although a stud career ultimately beckoned for his new co-owners, Three
Chimneys, connections kept him in training at four in hopes of further glory.
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Will Take Charge opened 2014 with two superb runner-up efforts in defeat.
Reappearing in the February 9 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream, he hooked a
razor-sharp Lea, who blitzed 1 1/8 miles in a track-record 1:46.86 to beat him.
Will Take Charge shipped out west for the March 8 Santa Anita Handicap for a
rematch with Mucho Macho Man. While he easily turned the tables on that foe,
Will Take Charge ran into Game On Dude at his best, and settled for second in a
stakes-record 1:58 for the 1 1/4-mile Big 'Cap.
Back at his old stomping grounds in Hot Springs, Will Take Charge ground out
a workmanlike victory in the April 12 Oaklawn Handicap. He wasn't quite the same
thereafter, checking in sixth behind the unheralded Moonshine Mullin in the May
2 Alysheba at Churchill, closing for second to the same rival in the June 14
Stephen Foster, and reporting home a lackluster third to Moreno in the August 2
Whitney at the Spa.
Will Take Charge was freshened in advance of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and he
had been training sharply. His last recorded work was a bullet five furlongs in
1:00 2/5 at Churchill on September 10, which earned a rave review from Lukas.
"The work was excellent," Lukas said at the time. "It was one of his best on
this track. I was really pleased with it."
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| Will Take Charge, led in by a delighted Willis Horton, rates as a premier recruit for Three Chimneys
(Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer Photography) |
Unfortunately, Will Take Charge was later found to have a mild strain to a
branch of his suspensory apparatus. He retires with a record of 21-7-6-1 and
career earnings of $3,924,648.The news comes on the heels of the recent
retirements of familiar foes Palace Malice and Game On Dude as well as Princess
of Sylmar.
Will Take Charge boasts a top-flight pedigree. His dam, $2.4 million earner
Take Charge Lady, captured the 2002 Ashland and back-to-back runnings of the
Spinster in 2002-03. Her other highlights include victories in the Alcibiades
and Fair Grounds Oaks and placings in the Kentucky Oaks, Apple Blossom, Ogden
Phipps, Gazelle and Delaware Handicaps.
Take Charge Lady is excelling herself as a broodmare, producing Grade
1-winning millionaire Take Charge Indy prior to Will Take Charge. The Dehere
mare's influence is already reaching a second generation, as she is the second
dam of current juvenile Take Charge Brandi, runner-up in the July 18
Schuylerville.
"Will Take Charge is a serious racehorse and is an even more important
stallion prospect," said Doug Cauthen, vice-chair of the Three Chimneys board.
"His body of work on the racetrack is remarkable and unique, and his
magnificent pedigree anchors a physical presence that will impress any breeder
that sees him. To me, he's as good as it can get.
"Three Chimneys is armed and ready with an impressive array of quality mares
to launch Will Take Charge's stud career. No stone will be left unturned to help
make him a success."
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"As we forge a new path forward at Three Chimneys," Chairman Gonçalo Borges
Torrealba said, "we feel very fortunate to announce that a champion like Will
Take Charge will help us write the next chapter in the farm's storied history
whose foundation as a stallion operation was built on the shoulders of such
towering breed changers as Seattle Slew, Dynaformer, Rahy, and the like."
A stud fee has not yet been announced.
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