As usual, Ward 2-year-old favored in first race of the meet

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Wesley Ward isn’t looking back, even if something might be gaining on him. The easygoing trainer is aware that other horsemen would love to replicate the success he’s enjoyed at Keeneland, particularly with 2-year-olds, but he plans to just keep doing what he does best.

“You hear talk about this trainer or that trainer really stepping it up with their babies,” Ward said earlier this week from the Fasig-Tipton sale in Florida, “that they’re putting in a solid foundation and everything. And it’s true – these baby races are a lot more contentious than they were when I first started here years ago. Just look through the lineups and you can tell.”

Nonetheless, the Keeneland spring meet surely will begin Friday as it often does – with a Ward 2-year-old favored in race 1. Dream Fly, a filly he bred and owns, will be widely expected to win under Joel Rosario and put Ward in the winner’s circle.

Dream Fly’s dam, Bombo Genesis, “is a half-sister to Bound for Nowhere,” said Ward, referring to the nearly $880,000 earner who goes Saturday in the Grade 2 Shakertown, “and [Dream Fly] can really run.”

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An hour or so later, Ward will give Rosario a leg up again after saddling Magniloquent in race 3, the second split of a 4 1/2-furlong maiden-special for 2-year-old fillies.

“From the day she was born, she’s been a standout to look at,” he said. “She’s a bit small, but you can just tell she’s going to be very, very quick. She’s done everything right so far.”

These are good times for Ward, 53. He’s looking forward to having the first Kentucky Derby starter of his 30-year training career in Like the King, winner of the Jeff Ruby Steaks on Saturday at Turfway Park.

“He came out of the race great,” said Ward, who has won or tied for six Keeneland training titles. “He’ll work twice at Keeneland and then we’ll send him on over” to Churchill Downs for the May 1 Derby. “It’s pretty exciting.”

As for the Keeneland opener, Ward has starters in five races, including the uncoupled duo of Chasing Artie and Fauci in the $100,000 Palisades Turf Sprint. Conspicuous by his absence from the Palisades is Golden Pal, the odds-on winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint last fall for Ward, who had planned on the standout colt making his 3-year-old debut in the 5 1/2-furlong race.

“He had a little setback, nothing that required us to turn him out or anything,” Ward said. “He’ll be out a month or two, and we’ll redirect our plans with him.”

Meanwhile, Ward is mourning the loss of Royal Approval, who suffered a fatal heart attack shortly after breezing over the Keeneland turf Saturday. Royal Approval, a 3-year-old Three Chimneys Farm homebred, was an odds-on winner of the Grade 3 Matron last fall at Belmont Park.

“That’s the tough part of the game,” he said.