THE last race on the card is often the last chance for those chasing their losses. Eight years ago Wesley Ward brought six horses from America to Royal Ascot. It was a gamble and he was wondering if it would pay off after his first runner, Cannonball, had finished sixth in the King’s Stand Stakes on the opening day of the fixture.
Strike The Tiger was running in the concluding Windsor Castle Stakes and Ward held his breath as the stalls crashed open.
Sixty seconds later the rest of the crowd were collecting theirs as the 33-1 shot became the first American-trained winner at the royal meeting.
The following day Jealous Again won the Queen Mary Stakes and Ward’s love affair with Royal Ascot was fully consummated, although the trainer readily admits it could have been different.
“When I first came over I was a little bit star-struck and didn’t really know what I was getting into,” he said. “After Cannonball I
wondered if I was in the deep end of the pool.
“If we hadn’t had any success it’s doubtful I’d have come again – it costs over $20,000 per horse round trip so it was a big gamble. But then, when I won the Windsor Castle, it vindicated what we’d done and now it’s the focal point of my year. This is my favourite track in the world.”
Ward, who has seven Royal Ascot winners to his credit, has 10 horses scheduled to run this week, led by Lady Aurelia, the flying filly who won last year’s Queen Mary and will be favourite for the King’s Stand.
“Plans can go off course but she’s just been aces and done everything right,” Ward said. “She sailed through every breeze with the last one being best of all.”
That last breeze came at Ascot on Wednesday after which Ward was initially anxious. Lady Aurelia’s only defeat came in the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket last September, when she was found to have bled internally.
There had been no signs of problems when she won in Keeneland in April but Ward knows he has to tread carefully, unable to make use of the anti-bleeding drug Lasix that would be permissible in America.
“I was a little worried that she did a little too much,” he said. “She had a bleed last fall. This year she has been perfect but I’ve not asked her to do as much as she did then.
“So I was really, really relieved when the vet who scoped her said she was clean. I was really nervous until then but now I am very confident. I think she is going to run her A race.
“It opened my eyes when she walked into the paddock at Ascot like she owned the place. So I’m really looking forward to running her.”
Ward is also bullish on looking forward to the chances of the magnificently named filly Happy Like A Fool in the Queen Mary, a race he has won three times.
“I bred her myself and named her after a song by One Republic that my children listen to. It sounded like a good name for a horse.
She had a big work with Jamie Spencer [at Ascot] and came out of that great.”
Bookmakers appear to have taken Bound For Nowhere’s name at face value in the Commonwealth Cup but Ward feels he could confound those odds in what is shaping up to be one of the week’s hottest races.
“I matched him with Lady Aurelia prior to her race this year and he was a bit unseasoned, having had just one run at a small track. She was much better in every way. He ran shortly after she did and, after the experience of that race, he started to prove to me that he was a very valid foe in every work. In one of the works, he was better. Having seen the talent he has, I think he has a big chance.”
If Ward is right, everyone else could be chasing their losses.
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