Perfect Drift, Take Charge Lady Tops in Kentucky

Stonecrest Farm's Perfect Drift and Select Stable's Take Charge Lady have been chosen as the Kentucky-based "Horses of the Year" by members of Kentucky Thoroughbred Media, with the latter selected for her honor for an unprecedented third consecutive year.

The awards recognize horses that displayed excellence at Kentucky racetracks and whose connections made a commitment to support racing in the state. The awards are named in honor of the horses that earned the inaugural honors as the KTM's Kentucky-based "Horses of the Year": Overbrook Farm's 1996 juvenile champion Boston Harbor, and Dolphus Morrison's multiple stakes-winning filly Morris Code.

Perfect Drift earned the "Boston Harbor" award for a stellar campaign in 2003 that included four victories in major stakes highlighted by a victory over eventual Horse of the Year Mineshaft in the $750,000 Stephen Foster Handicap (gr. I) at Churchill Downs. The 4-year-old Dynaformer gelding also won the Kentucky Cup Classic (gr. II) at Turfway Park, finished fourth in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (gr. IT)) at Churchill, and won an allowance race on the grass at Keeneland for trainer Murray Johnson.

Perfect Drift, who was stabled at Churchill Downs' Trackside Louisville training center, also won the Washington Park Handicap (gr. II) and the Hawthorne Gold Cup (gr. II) in a campaign in which he won five of eight races and earned more than $1.5 million.

Take Charge Lady, a 4-year-old daughter of Dehere trained by Ken McPeek, earned her third consecutive "Morris Code" award for a campaign in which she scored a second consecutive victory in Keeneland's Spinster Stakes (gr. I). The Churchill Downs-based filly also won Arlington Matron Handicap (gr. III) and finished second to Azeri in the Apple Blossom (gr. I) at Oaklawn Park, Sightseek in the Ogden Phipps (gr. I) at Saratoga, and Wild Spirit in the Delaware Handicap (gr. II) at Delaware Park.

She finished fifth in the Falls City Handicap (gr. II) at Churchill in the final race of her career, and completed 2003 with a record 2-3-0 in seven races and earnings of more than $700,000.

The awards will be presented to representatives of the winning horses Sept. 18 at Turfway Park during the celebration of the track's annual Kentucky Cup Day of Champions. Members of the KTM will be on hand for the presentations.

The KTM is a professional organization of print and electronic journalists, photojournalists, and publicists who work in or around Kentucky's Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry.