Ward expects Kaufymaker to fire in Juvenile Sprint

Wesley Ward felt confident on June 15 at Royal Ascot that he was saddling the winner of the Group 2 Coventry Stakes, a straight-course sprint for 2-year-olds over six furlongs. His filly Kaufymaker had won her career debut, a Keeneland dirt sprint, by more than six lengths and had been training with a vengeance.

“When we breezed her on the grass for the first time after she won, boom!” Ward said. “I ran her in the Coventry against the boys because that’s a prestigious race and she was just running away from everything we worked her with, both before we went over to England and after she got there.”

In the Coventry, they ran away from Kaufymaker. In contention for a half-mile, Kaufymaker faded to finish eighth. But that does not stop Ward from feeling the same confidence when he sends Kaufymaker out Thursday at Kentucky Downs in the $500,000 Juvenile Sprint, run around a bend and over a stiff 6 1/2 furlongs.

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Kaufymaker, a Jimmy Creed filly bred and owned by Greg Kaufman, has trained with just as much verve since she returned from England as she had before she traveled.

“We gave her a little time when she came back and she’s trained just as good as she was going over there,” said Ward. “She broke sharp in the Coventry, but when the running started she just wasn’t there. She came back and scoped with a little bit of mucus. All my 2-year-olds over there, none of them really fired.”

Ward, who gives John Velazquez the mount, said he was pleased with Kaufymaker’s draw on the outside of a 10-horse field.

None of these 2-year-olds has won anything more than a maiden race. Pure Panic, who was second, and Bonus Appreciation, who was seventh, come out of the Skidmore Stakes, carded for turf but rained onto the Saratoga dirt. Pure Panic had won a turf maiden race at Ellis Park first time out and looks live Thursday for trainer Mike Maker. Steve Asmussen trains Bonus Appreciation and also entered Vodka N Water, who was second in the Bashford Manor behind Double Thunder, winner of the $200,000 Sapling this past Sunday at Monmouth.

Vodka N Water made his last start at Monmouth, trying turf in the Tyro, but was fouled on the far turn and went down after clipping heels. He has a good chance to outrun his odds on Thursday.

The Tyro was won by none other than the Ward-trained Her World, and the linkages in the Juvenile Sprint go deeper still. Also entered is an Irish import named Masseto, who finished a close fourth in the Coventry, beating Kaufymaker. Privately purchased, Masseto has been with trainer Mark Casse for about 45 days.

“I like him,” Casse said. “We thought about running him in New York, but with the sharp turns and everything, we kind of thought [Kentucky Downs] could be a little more of a homefield advantage.”

Casse said he wasn’t sure Masseto would be entered in Thursday’s race until recently.

“I was able to breeze him on the grass and kind of felt like in the last week or 10 days he’s come around,” he said. “I was questioning whether I was going to run him until then.”

Casse has a live shot to fire in Thursday’s $400,000 One Dreamer, carded at one-mile, 70 yards for fillies and mares who haven’t won a stakes race in 2021. The Casse-trained Hendy Woods is 9-2 on the morning line but could go postward lower than that after a good second-place finish last out at Saratoga in a similar spot, the De La Rose Stakes last month.

“I thought we were going to win it and we got nailed at the wire,” said Casse. “She looks like she fits well there. She’s grown up a lot; as she’s matured, she’s really gotten bigger and stronger.”

Four-year-old Hendy Woods has performed creditably in all three of her 2021 starts after ending her 2020 campaign with a sixth in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. She rates an edge Thursday over fellow 4-year-old Dominga, who is in good form for trainer Brad Cox but six races into her 2021 campaign seems to have hit a form plateau.

Pass the Plate, third as a 2-year-old in her lone Kentucky Downs start, and forward-running Sweet Melania also merit consideration in an 11-horse field.