Ward Hoping for 'Dream' Start to Royal Ascot Campaign

It's Apr. 1 and an American trainer has just arrived in England with a runner for the Brocklesby S. But this is no April Fool's joke, for Wesley Ward is nobody's fool.

European racing fans have seen what this man can do when he ships a horse in from Kentucky or Florida and they learned quickly to treat his runners with the utmost respect.

Jealous Again (Trippi) brought Ward to wider attention when bursting from the gates in the G2 Queen Mary S. and tearing up the track in front of the Queen at Royal Ascot in 2009, a day after Strike The Tiger (Tiger Ridge) had pounced in the Listed Windsor Castle S.

The imposing juvenile form of No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) was similarly impressive four years later when winning the G2 Norfolk S. before dominating the G1 Darley Prix Morny field in Deauville, and Ward was back for more last season, with Acapulco (Scat Daddy) and Undrafted (Purim) providing a Royal Ascot group-race double.

“I met the Queen at Ascot and it was clear how much she loves her racing,” Ward recalls. “She asked me question after question, and said, 'Why do you always have your horses right out in front from the start?' I told her that it's because then they are the ones that the others have to catch.”

The simple and bold tactic has served the trainer well and is likely to be deployed twice Saturday when Ward fields debutante New Trier (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) in a novice race on Kempton's Polytrack at 1:55 p.m. local time, while the apple of his eye, Create A Dream (Oasis Dream {GB}) heads to Doncaster for the Brocklesby, the turf season's traditional juvenile opener. Ordinarily, the mere presence of two Ward runners in Britain would guarantee that the pair would start as red-hot favourites for their respective races, but horses from Mark Johnston's stable have won the first three juvenile races of the year with similarly bold front-running tactics and the trainer is represented in each contest Saturday by The Last Lion (Ire) (Choisir {Aus}) at Doncaster and Dusker (Elusive Quality) at Kempton, so Ward won't necessarily have things all his own way.

“I'm not looking to come in here and take over,” he says in his quiet, considered drawl. “I'm just looking forward, hopefully, to being competitive as I have been in the past and there's a small niche among the horses I train at home who fit better to racing out here in the first part of the year. There's a small window with horses that you think are going to be early who might not be as good as some of the horses with better pedigrees coming out later in the year and you need to take advantage of it and capitalise on it.”

With stables at Gulfsteam Park and Keeneland, Ward already divides his time between the two, and traditionally dominates the early 2-year-old races at Keeneland's April meet, which starts next week. The track's switch back to dirt from Polytrack has precipitated a change in game plan for a number of horses in Ward's care.

He explains, “The problem I have now with all the 2-year-olds I train is that there are limited chances to race them all. A week from Friday will be the first 2-year-old race in the States and that will be on dirt, so when you have a turf pedigree horse, or a horse that has an affinity for the grass, you're forced to wait until mid-June for the first 2-year-old race on the grass at Belmont.”

Ward continues, “The horses bred for the grass can't get the footing that the dirt horses do–the typical American speed pedigree, fast 2-year-olds–so when you have the horses ready to run and you know they would beat the dirt horses on the grass, what do you do? You're forced either to wait or to bring them over here, so this is a new venture to see if we can start bringing them over early and having some preps prior to Ascot. At home, there are no 2-year-old turf stakes races until late August so there again, even if you were to win with one, you'd be forced into the stakes on the dirt which doesn't really make sense.”

It would be easy to dismiss Ward's success with his juveniles as a 'survival of the fittest' method of training, with those unable to cope mentally and/or physically cast aside to make way for others. But the trainer who has grafted away at his trade for more than 25 years doesn't take the youngsters in his care for granted, and manages to coax the best from them through skills learnt at his father's hand from a young age. Indeed, he was himself as precocious as many of his horses: race-riding at state fairs from the age of 12, crossing America and beyond as a jockey at 16, and taking out his trainer's licence at 21.

Ward recalls, “I knew I would quickly outgrow my jockey career so I started training at 21 without assisting anyone but I had a broad knowledge of riding around the world in Italy, in the Orient for a little while. I kept my eyes open as I knew my jockey career would be short. I've developed my own methods–I learnt by trial and error.”

He adds, “I'm a little bit pigeon-holed in what owners will send me–early 2-year-olds and what have you–but I've won other races, not the [GI] Kentucky Derby, but Derbys around the country, and I'd love to have more of the type of horses that you could aim at the Classics. But it's a tough business to get into. At least I'm good at something–I'm happy to get the horses that I have, I'll tell you that.”

Those horses benefit from a hand-on approach from the man who freely admits to being obsessive about his job.

“Once you're in racing, you're in and that's it. I never take a day off. Even now I'm thinking of everything that's happening back home and all the things that need doing,” he says. “I'm the first one on the backs of all my horses. I don't go to the races in the winter time. I'm at the farm all day long, training them and watching them grow. The other trainers are managing their stables, wherever they may be, and going to the races, but all of the breaking and early training part is outsourced to farms, so they are having to rely on the feedback from the people who run those farms.”

Ward continues, “My assistants saddle the runners and I'll stay at the farm so I can really grasp what type of 2-year-olds I have for the spring. That's my big advantage–you learn so much from them even in the first few days. Breaking horses is something that comes naturally to me as it's what I did with my father, who broke a lot of horses for other trainers.”

The fruits of that early regime may soon be harvested by his trio of fillies currently stabled at the Sangster family's exquisite Manton estate in Wiltshire. Acres of carpeted grassland are at Ward's disposal and, despite the odd distant glimpse of horses trained by Manton incumbent Brian Meehan, it is a far cry from the hustle and bustle of morning trackwork in America.

“This is the place to train racehorses,” states Ward as he strides across the turf, empty bar his first worker of the day, Oh So Terrible (Cape Blanco {Ire}), and a few deer who pop out of a bush after she passes and frolic across the gallop behind her.

Her easy canter and saunter back to Manton's historic stableyard is repeated by her two companions, each of whom could be forgiven for any spookiness at being asked to exercise alone on such a vast open space. They are, however, thoroughly professional and content in their work under local rider Joe Herbert, despite having only arrived in the country from Florida Monday.

“She looks ready,” Ward booms suddenly with glee as Create A Dream strolls alongside us, the benefits of the Florida sun etched across her gleaming bay coat.

“I'm so excited about the runners [on Saturday] and for next week at Keeneland. That's what I gear towards and there's still a sense of pride when they win,” he adds.

With Ward set to return to the U.S. Sunday, his eyes and ears in the U.K. will be his trusted deputies Blake Heap and Manuel Frausto, both experienced hands at travelling horses around the world. The trio will soon be augmented.

“I have a couple of French-breds who will be coming over and hopefully they will be good enough to be running in the stakes races in France. There's nothing for them at home,” says the trainer.

Ward also issues upbeat bulletins on his most recent Ascot winners, Undrafted and Acapulco, both of whom are aiming for a repeat visit to the Royal meeting.

He says, “Acapulco will be ready for one of the three races at Ascot that Coolmore chooses. She's a tremendous filly and she's had a mind-freshener. Physically she's very sound and, as good horses do, she came to hand quicker than I would have liked so I put her in at Turfway rather than keep working, working, working, and she won. Now we'll give her a little break until her next race, which will be sometime around the start of May, and should be perfect timing for Ascot.”

G1 Diamond Jubilee S. winner Undrafted is likely to be seen in next Saturday's GIII Shakertown S. at Keeneland, according to Ward, who offers, “Undrafted is doing great. We've had a pretty easy winter so he too has come to hand faster than I would have liked. Even though he does so well physically, and Keeneland is his home base, he doesn't like the turf course there as much as he likes other tracks. It's got a little bit of give to it and he'd like firmer ground. He has a good try though and the last two years he's run second in a race on Kentucky Derby day [the GIII Twin Spires Turf Sprint S.] but unfortunately it's five-eighths and he prefers a little more ground, but it set him up well for Ascot.”

Planning of military precision goes into Ward's now-regular assault on England's midsummer showcase. The first skirmishes will be settled Saturday and, with his early foot soldiers soon to be joined by a bigger battalion, they are primed and ready for battle.