First, the disclaimer: I am in love with Will Take Charge. I loved him on the track, and then, when I saw him in the flesh at Three Chimneys Farm shortly after his retirement, he took my breath away. I could have looked at him all day. He’s a large horse, with tons of bone, and that amazing head and white face: both handsome and pretty, the only horse I can think of that can embody both the masculine and feminine ideals of beauty. He instantly became my pick for leading freshman sire of 2018, and I was thrilled to see his first foals sell well as weanlings, yearlings, and then two-year-olds. I looked at as many of them as I could at sale, and loved them as well: he had stamped them with his own good looks.

Now, with Tijori’s win at Santa Anita in her first start, on May 11, Will Take Charge has his first winner. She won by 3 ¼ lengths in a 4 ½ furlong maiden special weight, in 52.69, as the second favorite. Now owned by Kaleem Shah, she is a veteran of three sales, having sold as a weanling for $130,000 at Keeneland November 2016; as a yearling at Fasig Tipton Saratoga, in 2017, for $260,000; and finally, as a two-year-old who ran ten flat at the Ocala Breeders Sale in March, whers she sold for $525,000.

Tijori is out of the multiple stakes placed Tapit mare Anchorage, and was bred by Rosilyn Polan in Kentucky. Her trainer, Simon Callaghan, is seriously considering taking Tijori to Royal Ascot, as he believes her talent to be limitless. The filly was ridden by Flavien Prat.

Tijori’s earnings of $32,400 catapults her sire into the number four spot on the early list of first crop sires. Will Take Charge stands at the aforementioned Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Kentucky, for a fee of $30,000 stands and nurses.

-- Roberta Smoodin