Will Take Charge clocks half-mile for Clark

Travers hero Will Take Charge, runner-up in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita last out, breezed four

furlongs Saturday at Churchill Downs in preparation for a bid for a second Grade

1 victory of his three-year-old season in the 139th running of the $500,000 Clark Handicap on November 29.

The D. Wayne Lukas-trained chestnut son of Unbridled's Song covered the

distance over the fast main track in :49 in his first major training move

since he lost by a nose to Mucho Macho Man in the November 2 Classic. The work by

Will Take Charge came just after the midtraining hours break for track

maintenance and ranked 35th of 84 on a busy morning beneath the track's

signature Twin Spires.

Exercise rider Rudy Quevelos was in the saddle as Will Take

Charge covered the distance in fractional times of :12 and :23 3/5 before

galloping out five furlongs in 1:04 4/5.

Lukas confirmed that Will Take Charge would face older foes for just the

second time in the 1 1/8-mile Clark.

The Clark field is expected to

include Game On Dude, who was the front-runner for Horse of the Year honors

before he ran ninth in the Classic; Bourbon Courage,

who was a close third to Shackleford and Take Charge Indy in the 2012 Clark; and

stakes veterans Prayer for Relief and Finnegans Wake.

"The timing is pretty good," Lukas said. "I almost wish there was more to the

season, because he is good right now. It's a prestigious race in many ways. It's

a Grade 1 and if we could get another Grade 1 against older competition around

two turns, I think it would be significant."

Lukas believes Will Take Charge is the front runner for the

Eclipse Award for champion three-year-old following his near-miss run in this year's

Classic. The colt experienced traffic problems on the far turn, and

Lukas contends that those issues probably cost him the victory.

But the Hall of Fame trainer believes a win in the Clark

would seal the deal and his maturing colt is very capable of completing that

task.

"He's light," Lukas explained. "He's rangy, but he's starting to get a little

bit more muscle tone to him and filling out. He stays into the feed tub and does

everything you'd like, but a lot of these gangly athletes don't get good until

they get older, and that's the way he is.

"He's better mentally, too. He now has got the idea that if

he clocks them and you set him down at the top of the stretch, he finishes. To

run down those horses -- Game On Dude and Mucho Macho Man and those type horses

-- in the stretch like did after getting bumped and pushed out (in the Classic)

was significant. I mean, he was running."

Lukas used the Clark to clinch a championship in 2000 for Surfside, who was named the nation's top

three-year-old

filly after she wrapped up her season with a victory over males in the Clark.

While Lukas acknowledges that there could be implications for the race for

champion three-year-old of 2013, with now-retired Kentucky Derby winner Orb as the

other logical contender, he insists the run in the Clark goes beyond a hope to

guarantee an Eclipse Award for Will Take Charge.

"I think he's already sealed it," Lukas said. "I would

rather take the position that the Clark is a significant race with Grade 1

status and a nice purse, and an opportunity to showcase our horse again.

"I've been dealing with six or seven different farms that are interested in

standing this horse. None of them at any time said to me, 'Well, if he's

three-year-old champion, what about that?' That has never come up in the

conversation. They're looking at the merit of what we've already done, the body

of work we've already done."

Will Take Charge heads into the Clark with record of

14-5-3-0 and earnings of $2,727,371.

Two other possible starters in the Clark Handicap also breezed

at Churchill Downs on Saturday.

Bourbon Courage worked five furlongs

in 1:00 1/5, the second fastest move of 48 at the distance. The son of Lion Heart

worked in fractional times of :24 4/5 and :36 2/5 before galloping out six furlongs

in 1:13 1/5 and seven furlongs in 1:27 2/5. Bourbon Courage, winner of the Super

Derby and runner-up in both the Indiana Derby and West Virginia Derby at three,

is exiting a second against optional claimers under the Twin Spires on October

31.

Finnegans Wake turned five-eighths for

trainer Dale Romans in 1:01 2/5. The four-year-old son of Powerscourt finished

fourth over Keeneland's Polytrack in the Fayette Stakes and was just a

half-length back in second in the Bowling Green Handicap on Belmont Park's turf

in his past two. The bay also ran fourth in a trio of Grade 1 grass contests

this season -- the Arlington Million, Man o' War and Manhattan Handicap.

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