SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Wesley Ward has already won 12 maiden races for 2-year-olds in 2024, 11 of which were first-time starters. Thursday, he will attempt to win the $150,000 Tremont Stakes at Saratoga with a first-time starter when he sends out Touchy in the 5 1/2-furlong race that is the first of 24 stakes to be run during the four-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. The Tremont, for males, and the $150,000 Astoria for juvenile fillies, are two of four stakes on Thursday’s 10-race card that begins at 12:50 p.m. The Grade 2, $250,000 Belmont Gold Cup scheduled for two miles on turf and the $150,000 Jersey Girl for 3-year-old filly sprinters also are on the card. Never bashful to tout one of his 2-year-olds, Ward is extremely excited to run Touchy on Thursday, purposely getting him to the work tab later than many of his babies who excelled during the Keeneland spring meet. :: DRF Belmont Stakes Packages: Save up to 52% on PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more “This guy, from day one, has been the pick of the litter,” Ward said. “I wouldn’t start a maiden in a stakes race if I didn’t believe that he had that ability.” Last Friday, Ward had Touchy work in company with his Astoria runner, Long Neck Paula, over the Oklahoma training track. Touchy started a few lengths behind and even though he was under a hold from exercise rider Julio Garcia, Touchy finished a neck in front at the wire. “It was an eye-opening breeze,” Ward said. Touchy, one of five first-time starters in the Tremont, breaks from post 7 in this eight-horse field. Trainer Steve Asmussen sends out the debut-winning Three Echoes in the Tremont. Three Echoes, a son of Echo Town, got a useful education in his May 24 debut when he got bumped at the break, had to sit behind horses, and then squeezed through a narrow opening along the inside to win by three-quarters of a length. Steve’s son Keith was named to ride Three Echoes on Thursday, but is out indefinitely with a broken leg suffered in a spill Saturday at Churchill Downs. It was not readily known who would ride Three Echoes. Studlydoright won his debut at Laurel rallying from six lengths back and doing so by coming up the rail in the stretch under Xavier Perez over a sloppy track to win by 1 1/2 lengths. “I liked the way he ran, he came through a really tight hole and ran into the mud,” trainer John Robb said. “I didn’t expect him to win the way he did. I thought he would lay close. He never ran until the last eighth of a mile. He was jumping up and down, I suppose that might have been from the mud.” There is a chance of rain on Thursday, which could make for an off track. Classic of Course, trained and owned in part by Patrick Biancone, beat three rivals when he won on debut by 6 1/2 lengths on May 3 at Gulfstream Park. He will break from the outside post under Irad Ortiz Jr. Brereton’s Baytown, Dew, Dominican Thunder, and Shoot the Nickel are the other firsters in the field. :: DRF's Belmont Stakes Headquarters: Contenders, latest news, and more Long Neck Paula tops Astoria One of Ward’s more impressive debut-winning 2-year-olds was the filly Long Neck Paula, who overcame the outside post in an 11-horse field on May 2 to win by 3 1/2 lengths at Churchill Downs. Long Neck Paula again has the outside draw in a nine-horse field – seven winners, two maidens – in the Astoria. Long Neck Paula was a $500,000 purchase out of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March 2-year-olds in training sale by owner Will Stroud. Ward was able to get four works into her – two from the gate before she debuted. “It was a big question mark at Churchill whether she would break with the field and she did,” Ward said. “From the first step she was there.” Ward said he is content with Long Neck Paula again having to break from the outside. “That’s the draw I would have picked,” Ward said. French Horn, trained by Mark Casse, won her debut defeating just three rivals in a 4 1/2-furlong race over Woodbine’s synthetic surface. She is by Complexity, a debut winner at Saratoga, out of the dam Emma’s Encore, who gave trainer H. Allen Jerkens his last Grade 1 victory when she took the 2012 Prioress at Saratoga in 2012. Casse said he’s worked her on the dirt training track at Woodbine. “She worked phenomenal,” Casse said. “Saratoga is a unique track, but I’m sure she’ll handle it.” The Queens M G beat West Memorial a head in a 4 1/2-furlong race on April 7 at Keeneland. West Memorial came back to beat males in the Kentucky Juvenile at Churchill. West Memorial was trained by John Hancock then and is now with Peter Gulyas. Gulyas has taken over the stable of horses previously trained by George Weaver, who is under suspension from the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit. The Queens M G, who was 45-1 when she won her debut, has since been sold by previous owner/trainer Israel Acevado and is now with Saffie Joseph Jr. Aoraki won her debut for Asmussen on May 10 at Churchill. Biscuitwiththeboss was a debut winner at Laurel for Brittany Russell on May 4, a race from which the second- and third-place finishers came back to win. The Astoria goes as race 9. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.