Another Rider Change for Will Take Charge

For the fourth time in as many races, Will Take Charge will have a new rider when he goes to the gate for Saturday's Grade 1 Travers.

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas named Luis Saez to ride the 3-year-old chestnut son of Unbridled's Song, the 21-year-old jockey's "Mid-Summer Derby" debut.

Journeyman Jon Court was aboard when Will Take Charge was stopped in traffic then re-gathered himself to finish eighth in the Kentucky Derby. He was 10th with Hall of Famer Mike Smith in the Preakness and a closing second, beaten a length by Palace Malice, with Junior Alvarado in the Spa's Grade 2 Jim Dandy on July 27.

"It's not anything; I just think sometimes the karma is wrong," Lukas said. "I've had good luck with certain riders. I remember one time with [Eddie] Delahoussaye out in California. World class rider, Hall of Famer. He and I are close friends, yet I could put him on Secretariat and I guarantee you we couldn't win. We'd go to dinner and talk about it. I'd say, 'Eddie, this week I've got a filly, 3-2, she can't lose. I'll put you on and we're going to break the jinx.' She'd run fourth.

"Sometimes the karma for me just isn't there. I didn't feel real comfortable with where I was at with Junior, so I made the change."

Saez has one stakes victory at the meet, taking the $100,000 De La Rose with Assateague. He ranked eighth at Belmont Park's spring-summer meet with 39 wins, including the Grade 2 Peter Pan and Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay.

"I'm going to coach him a little bit. I'll tell him what I can about the horse," Lukas said. "I think [we need] a realistic pace and just a chance to run on at the end, that's all. We don't need a lot of luck. I think he'll be in a position where we can probably make a run. If we're good enough, it'll happen. If it isn't, we'll look someplace else."