Kimari looking for BC Juvenile Turf Sprint ticket in Indian Summer

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Wesley Ward has become synonymous with fast young horses, not to mention a devil-may-care attitude as to where and against whom they run.

Ward essentially popularized the trend of American trainers sending horses to Royal Ascot in June, just as he dismisses the widely held notion that fillies should avoid competing against their male counterparts.

“I’ve always thought fillies tend to develop faster than colts, at least early in their careers,” said Ward.

With that, Ward will send out favored Kimari when the $200,000 Indian Summer is run Sunday at 5 1/2 furlongs on the Keeneland turf. Owned by the Ten Broeck Farm of David Mowat, the Munnings filly will break from post 2 under Mike Smith when she faces eight other 2-year-olds in the Indian Summer, a Win and You’re In toward the Nov. 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita.

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A smashing debut winner over the Keeneland main track in late April, Kimari was beaten just a head in the Grade 2 Queen Mary at Royal Ascot in June before turning heads with a four-length triumph in the Bolton Landing at Saratoga in August.

“She’s been brilliant so far,” said Ward. “The way she’s trained here at Keeneland since we got back from Saratoga, I’d sure hope she’ll run big again Sunday.”

One other filly is among the opposition, along with five colts and two geldings. Probably the chief threat is Old Chestnut (post 1, Tyler Gaffalione), a Speightstown colt whose second straight victory over the Woodbine turf came three Sundays ago in the Ontario Racing Stakes, a race to put him squarely in the Breeders’ Cup picture. Mark Casse trains for the Live Oak Plantation.

The wild card of the group is Mystic Lancelot (post 3, Javier Castellano), whose trainer, Todd Pletcher, swept the Indian Summer and BC Juvenile Turf Sprint last year with Bulletin. A flashy first-out winner when sprinting on the Saratoga turf, Mystic Lancelot, a colt by Into Mischief, faltered when stretched out to a mile for his only subsequent start, the Grade 1 Summer at Woodbine, finishing ninth of 10 as the 2-1 favorite.

Perhaps Pletcher has found a potential answer to that poor last effort, as Mystic Lancelot will be racing with blinkers for the first time Sunday.

Fringe considerations include the second filly, Fast Scene (post 5, Gabriel Saez), who will be racing on the bleeder medication Lasix after winning a pair of stakes over the Woodbine turf, and Chimney Rock (post 9, Jose Ortiz), a fast-closing second in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Turf Sprint last month.

Rounding out the cast are Shippingport, Axiomo, Rockcrest, and Johnny Unleashed.

The Indian Summer, which was revived last year as a Breeders’ Cup prep after last being run here in 2001 under different conditions, is the seventh of 10 Sunday races and the first of three straight stakes. Post time is 4:35 p.m. Eastern.