Will Take Charge on course for Whitney; Wicked Strong targeting Jim Dandy

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said champion Will Take Charge is on course to run August 2 in the historic Grade

1, $1.5 million Whitney for three-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles.

Coming off a second-place finish in the Stephen

Foster Handicap behind upsetter Moonshine Mullin, Will Take Charge worked five

furlongs in a bullet :59 1/5 over Saratoga good training turf on July 14. He likely will have one more work

before the Whitney, Lukas said.

"He's ready," Lukas stated. "He's right on target for the

Whitney. We feel comfortable with him. He's always thrived up here and done

really well. This year doesn't seem to be an exception."

Will Take Charge has had a top-class campaign so far this

year, winning the Oaklawn Handicap and finishing second in three other

Grade 1 races, including the Santa Anita Handicap

and Donn Handicap.

"We're very happy," Lukas said. "I'm not frustrated a bit

with him. He came within an inch of beating the best horses in the world."

It will be the third work and first at Saratoga for the

Hard Spun colt since running a dead-heat fourth with Kentucky Derby and

Preakness victor California Chrome in the June 7 Belmont Stakes.

Wicked Strong also finished fourth in the May 3 Derby following his Wood victory.

"He's pointing for the Jim Dandy," Jerkens said. "He was

here last year, so it's not that strange to him. He's doing good. Most horses

(lose weight) after they run hard races like that, but as long as they get it

back it's fine. It looks like he has."

This summer will be the first in many years that Saratoga

will be without Jerkens' father, 85-year-old Hall of Fame trainer H. Allen

Jerkens, who has remained at Gulfstream Park in south Florida since the winter.

"It's sad, but time goes on. Sooner or later, it was going

to happen," the younger Jerkens, 55, said. "It's mostly that he can't travel

because his wife's not doing well. He's got to stay close. Everything is much

easier down there. He lives right around the corner from the track, and the

doctor that he likes is right across the street. As long as he's got some

business down there, not a lot, but some business to keep him going."

Jerkens assisted his father before going out on his own in

the mid-1990s. He has taken on Grade 2-placed winners House Rules and Classic Point from

the elder Jerkens for the Saratoga meet.