Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint: Undrafted, Acapulco prep at Keeneland

Kentucky-based trainer Wesley Ward is known for sending his horses on audacious international campaigns, his success at the renowned Royal Ascot meeting one of the results. He welcomes the return of the Breeders’ Cup to Santa Anita, where he won a pair of races at the 2014 event.

And yet for all his traveling, Ward feels most at home at Keeneland, where his string is based and where he can see his retired champion Judy the Beauty wandering her field at his adjacent property while he stands in the grandstand watching this year’s Breeders’ Cup hopefuls prepare.

“All my preps are at Keeneland,” Ward said in September as he stood in the grandstand watching some of those prospects breeze. “It’s my place.”

Ward will saddle two Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint contenders early in the Keeneland meet, including the veteran gelding Undrafted, who takes on defending Turf Sprint winner Mongolian Saturday in the Grade 3 Woodford Stakes on Saturday. Six days later, the globetrotting filly Acapulco is expected to return to action in the Grade 3 Buffalo Trace Franklin County.

Undrafted has bankrolled more than $1.2 million while winning or placing in 14 stakes, highlighted by a score in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at the 2015 Royal Ascot meeting. The 6-year-old Undrafted finished third, beaten only about a half-length, in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Santa Anita’s downhill turf course, a major mark in his favor.

Acapulco has never been worse than third in five starts, highlighted by an outstanding summer in England as a juvenile. After capturing the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot, she faced older rivals in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes and was a creditable second, beaten only two lengths.

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Acapulco has won both of her starts this year, most recently a facile score in the Unbridled Sidney Stakes in May at Churchill Downs, before going to the sidelines. “She had an unfortunate setback training,” Ward said. “She hurt her foot a little bit, and it’s taken a little extra time to get her back.”

◗ Ambitious Brew and Holy Lute threw their names into the ring last Friday with upset victories in divisions of the Grade 3 Eddie D Stakes, host track Santa Anita’s major prep for the Turf Sprint. Ambitious Brew topped a trifecta rounded out by Richard’s Boy and Hunt in the first division of the race, as the favored Lady Shipman blurred the Turf Sprint picture by finishing sixth. Holy Lute won his first stakes in more than a year in the second division, leading home Boozer and Guns Loaded.

Limato, who would be the leading European contender for the Turf Sprint, posted his second Group 1 victory of the year in the Prix de la Foret on the Arc de Triomphe undercard at Chantilly. Following the race, trainer Henry Candy indicated to the European press that his preference would be the Breeders’ Cup Mile, but owner Paul Jacobs expressed reservations about that spot.

◗ Why Two, the stakes-winning turf sprinter scratched in the post parade of the first division of the Eddie D Stakes, could be pre-entered in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, according to trainer Mike Machowsky.

“He just has a sore foot,” Machowsky said. Jockey Kent Desormeaux told Machowsky he believed the setback was minor after Why Two scratched. “Kent said he felt fine as he jogged off, then when he galloped up the hill, something wasn’t right in his left front.”

Why Two, the winner of the Green Flash on Aug. 12 at Del Mar and 2 for 2 on turf, has resumed jogging and was scheduled to resume galloping this week.

“If he trains well, I might pre-enter in the Turf Sprint and see if he gets in,” Machowsky said.

– additional reporting by Brad Free