A barn fire at a farm owned by trainer Wesley Ward in Lexington, Ky., killed three horses Sunday afternoon, including the trainer’s historic first Royal Ascot winner, Strike the Tiger. Ward, who has a barn in the Rice Road stabling area at Keeneland, also owns a farm adjacent to that facility, which is in view from the Keeneland grandstand. Strong thunderstorms in Lexington on Sunday morning had temporarily closed Keeneland, and the weather lingered in the area throughout the day. The Lexington Fire Department told Ward that the fire, first reported by Horse Racing Nation, was caused by a lightning strike to a service pole that led into the barn. Ward was at his home at the time. The three horses lost were Strike the Tiger, 15; Modesto, a 5-year-old who was a maiden winner at Keeneland last year; and an unraced 2-year-old by former Ward trainee and current Kentucky stallion Hootenanny. No other injuries to horses or people were reported. Strike the Tiger, by Tiger Ride, was co-bred by Ward with Mitchell Dutko and Ray Sainz in California and was co-owned by those connections early in his career. After a debut victory at Churchill Downs, Strike the Tiger made his first trip overseas, scoring an upset victory in the 2009 Windsor Castle Stakes, making Ward the first U.S.-based trainer to saddle a winner at the renowned Royal Ascot meeting. The next day, he saddled Jealous Again to win the Group 2 Queen Mary, and since that double, he has sent out an additional 10 winners at Royal Ascot as a regular presence. Strike the Tiger went on to win the Chenery Stakes at Colonial Downs that summer, and the following spring, was second in the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes at Keeneland. He eventually retired in 2014 with a career mark of 30-6-7-4 and earnings of $209,048. The gelding had been claimed away from Ward, but the trainer kept tabs on him throughout his career. “He was making his way down the ladder and I went to Kellyn Gorder, who had him, and said that whenever you are ready to retire the horse I would give him a wonderful home for the rest of his life,” Ward told the Thoroughbred Daily News in 2017. “He was very gracious, a wonderful guy. He didn’t require any payment. He gave me the horse.” Strike the Tiger became a pony for the Ward barn and made several more trips overseas to accompany the trainer’s star horses, including two-time Royal Ascot winner and 2016 Cartier Award champion juvenile Lady Aurelia. Most recently, he accompanied Golden Pal on his trip last August to York in England.