Rain or shine, Ward sitting pretty for Skidmore

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Regardless of surface or track condition, trainer Wesley Ward seemingly has Friday’s $120,000 Skidmore Stakes at Saratoga covered.

Ward has four of the 10 entrants in the race for 2-year-olds, scheduled for 5 1/2 furlongs on the Mellon turf course. Remnants of Tropical Storm Fred could drop as much as two inches of rain in the Adirondack region on Thursday, potentially impacting turf racing here Thursday and Friday.

On turf, Ward will send out the filly Kaufymaker and the colt Overbore. If the race is rained off to the dirt, Ward has Averly Jane and Golden Bell, both of whom were entered for Wednesday’s Bolton Landing Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, which was scheduled for the turf.

Kaufymaker, a daughter of Jimmy Creed, won a maiden dirt race by 6 1/4 lengths at Keeneland. Ward said he wasn’t impressed with Kaufymaker’s dirt win, but was impressed with the way she breezed on turf after that race.

Kaufymaker was part of Ward’s large contingent he took to Royal Ascot, but she could only manage an eighth-place finish, four lengths behind winner Berkshire Shadow, in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes. John Velazquez was aboard.

“I thought that would be my best chance for a 2-year-old to win and she didn’t,” Ward said. “She bounced out of there in front with Johnny, but when the running started she just wasn’t there for him. My 2-year-olds, the whole [Ascot] meet, we scoped them and they all had a little bit of mucus.”

Kaufymaker worked twice on dirt at Keeneland before shipping to Saratoga, where she put in a strong half-mile move over the Oklahoma turf course.

Velazquez rides Kaufymaker from post 3.

Overbore would seem able to handle either surface. A son of Speightstown, Overbore was beaten a nose in a maiden turf race at Churchill. He then came back and won the Tremont Stakes on June 4 at Belmont in the mud.

Ward, who is in England where he was to run Golden Pal in the Nunthorpe at York on Friday morning, said Overbore was entered “more for the mud” than the turf.

Averly Jane, a daughter of Midshipman, is 2 for 2, both wins coming over a wet track. She beat fillies by 8 3/4 lengths over a good track at Keeneland. She beat males by 3 1/4 lengths in the slop in the Kentucky Juvenile on April 28 at Churchill.

Golden Bell won her debut April 22 over a fast track at Keeneland. She went to Royal Ascot for the Windsor Castle Stakes and finished 16th in a 27-horse field.

Pure Panic, trained by Mike Maker, was a debut winner on turf going 5 1/2 furlongs at Ellis Park. Completing the field are Barone Cesco, Catch the Smoke, Bonus Appreciation, Baytown Warrior, and the main-track-only entrant Backnthewoods.