Ward continues to win at Royal Ascot

Another Royal Ascot meeting, another milestone for trainer Wesley Ward, who continues to defy the widely held notion that European horses are simply better on turf than their American counterparts.

It was one thing when Ward began plucking Ascot prizes with 2-year-olds beginning in 2009. Ward reasoned – rightly so – that his U.S.-based juveniles generally were more advanced in June than their overseas counterparts, and that on firm turf, his youngsters could have an edge. But this year, Ward took down the closing-day feature at the Royal Ascot meeting, winning the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes (think Black Caviar, 2012) with Undrafted.

“It was amazing,” Ward said by phone Tuesday. “Over here, I don’t think a lot of people appreciate what a big deal it was. Over there, they do.”

Undrafted had finished third in the July Cup last summer in England before sweeping to victory under Frankie Dettori this past Saturday. Ward said he thought Dettori’s patient ride was a masterpiece.

“That guy is just an unbelievable rider. He had that horse in his pinkies,” Ward said.

Undrafted, as well as Ward’s second Ascot winner, the 2-year-old filly Acapulco, and the eight other horses he shipped to race at Ascot are back in the United States and stabled at the USDA quarantine barn on the Arlington backstretch. They’re all scheduled to ship to Keeneland on Thursday, Ward said.

Undrafted won’t run back anytime soon. Ward said another run in the July Cup is “a little too quick back,” and Undrafted will have a light summer for the most part, gearing up to make his next start in September, most likely in the Haydock Sprint Cup in England or, as a backup plan, in the Kentucky Cup Sprint at Kentucky Downs.

Ward, though, plans to send two of his 2-year-olds back to England this summer, including Queen Mary Stakes winner Acapulco, who probably will face older horses in the five-furlong Nunthorpe Stakes in August at York. The Nunthorpe is open to horses 2 and up, and as a 2-year-old filly, Acapulco would get a massive weight break from her older male rivals.

“She wants no part of dirt, so you got to go back over with a 2-year-old grass filly, don’t you?” Ward said. “She’s so big, so fast, I think I’m going to tackle the older horses.”

Should Ward change his mind, the Prix Morny and the Lowther Stakes both could be considered for Acapulco.

Finnegan, who was scratched from the opening-day Coventry Stakes because of colic, has recovered from that malady as well as an accompanying fever and also is a candidate to be shipped back overseas for a stakes start later this summer.

Ward said he has no set plans for Hootenanny, who finished 11th of 18 with no apparent excuse as the favorite in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup on Friday of the Ascot meeting.

“That was a big disappointment,” Ward said. “He was training great, just didn’t fire on the day, and I don’t know why.”

But you can’t win them all, and a trip to Royal Ascot that lands two group stakes, including the ground-breaking Group 1, can hardly be disappointing in the end.