Ultima Grace's speed has even surprised Ward

If you can’t beat Wesley Ward – and that is almost literally true in April 2-year-old races at Keeneland – you might as well join the party.

Ward, dating to the April 2023 meet at Keeneland, has gone 7 for 15 in baby races, a record made even stronger by the fact he’s had multiple runners in some of the races. Already this April he has won three of the five 2-year-old races. Unless Ultima Grace blows the start from post 1 in Thursday’s second race, another 4 1/2-furlong tilt for 2-year-olds, she’ll win, too.

Hardly a secret, that. Ultima Grace, by American Pharoah out of Ultima D – fifth in her Keeneland debut for Ward in 2017 – is listed at 6-5 on the morning line, John Velazquez named to ride. Velazquez, Ward said, was clamoring for this mount after he worked Ultima Grace out of the gate last month at Payson Park.

“They sent her to me in July, and in August we started training her. She’s a big, gangly type horse – looks like a harness horse. I take her to the gate, nice and easy, popped her out of there with a couple of my fast ones, and whoosh, she was gone!” Ward said. “She’s not one of those little rocket ships. I was like, ‘What the hell?’ I worked her back and she did it again. Johnny V came up and worked her, and he said, “Don’t let anybody else ride her! She’s mine.”

Ward said his strongest 2-year-olds are slated to start on grass toward the end of the Keeneland meet, and there are more lined up behind those.

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets.

“I’ve got a pretty good group. I should have some a little later for Churchill. Last year and the prior year, I didn’t have the greatest stock, but I’ve got better horses this year,” Ward said.

Ward also has a horse, Daring Do, for the featured seventh race, a turf sprint for older fillies and mares with multiple high-end allowance conditions. The race drew an overflow field of 15, and at least one of the also-eligibles will run since Bling, in the main body of the field, started Saturday in a stakes race. Weather could be a factor, too, with midweek rain in the forecast.

Daring Do was a first-level Keeneland turf-sprint allowance winner last April, won a 3-year-old turf sprint stakes in July at Ellis Park, and came out of her most recent start, a flat seventh last October at Keeneland, with a chipped knee, Ward said.

That’s a real excuse, and Daring Do fits as well as anyone in the Thursday feature with something close to her best.

“She worked really well over the course Saturday,” Ward said. “She kind of bounced over it.”

◗ While trainer Charlie Appleby mentioned the Turf Classic at Churchill Downs next month as a potential target for Maker’s Mark Mile winner Master of The Seas, Appleby told Keeneland publicity over the weekend that the 6-year-old gelding, winner of the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Mile, was being aimed at the Fourstardave on Aug. 10 at Saratoga. Naval Crown, runner-up in the Maker’s Mark Mile, could start in the Turf Classsic.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.