Ward fillies staying home for Bolton Landing
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The grass wasn’t necessarily greener on the other side of the pond for trainer Wesley Ward’s pair of 2-year-old fillies Laxfield Road and Bruised Orange. Ward is hoping a return Stateside and to seemingly inferior competition will aid them in Wednesday’s $100,000 Bolton Landing Stakes at Saratoga.
The inaugural Bolton Landing is scheduled for 5 1/2 furlongs on turf. A field of six was entered, with only one member of the field, the New York-bred Celestial Sighting, having won on turf. A seventh horse, Island Saint, was entered for the main track only.
Laxfield Road and Bruised Orange were both sharp debut winners on dirt at Keeneland in April. Ward, as he does with all of his babies, trained them on turf and thought both did well enough to warrant trips to the Royal Ascot meeting.
Bruised Orange finished 12th, beaten 13 3/4 lengths, by the Ward-trained Acapulco in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes. Laxfield Road finished 15th, beaten 28 lengths, in the Group 3 Albany Stakes.
Ward said that in addition to the Royal Ascot turf courses not being conducive to speed, he felt those two races came up difficult.
“Sometimes those races aren’t too hard,” he said. “This year, they came up really tough.”
KEY CONTENDERS
Laxfield Road
◗ Laxfield Road sped off to an 11 1/4-length debut win in a 4 1/2-furlong race at Keeneland on April 22. Sombree, the runner-up, has come back to win twice, including the Mountaineer Juvenile Fillies.
◗ Ward said the outside post should be an advantage for Laxfield Road and jockey Joel Rosario
“I think he’ll be able to rate her off the lead,” Ward said. “He can control the race from the outside post.”
Bruised Orange
◗ Scored a three-length front-running score in her debut at Keeneland on April 8. Her final time of 51.92 was just 0.41 seconds off the track record. Two horses from that race have come back to win.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 2 Bruised Orange and No. 6 Laxfield Road. Trainer Wesley Ward is 30-2-5-4 with a $0.39 ROI over the past five years at Saratoga with juveniles following a layoff of 45 days or more. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
:: Learn more about Formulator | Buy Formulator PPs
:: Follow the @DRFFormulator Twitter feed and get free Formulator facts
Simple Surprise (Beyer: 70)
◗ Handled the slop in winning her debut at Churchill Downs by a 1 1/4 lengths.
◗ Trainer Steve Asmussen was planning to run her in the Schuylerville Stakes on opening day, but the filly got sick.
“This looked like a good place to start her back,” Asmussen said.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 4 Simple Surprise. Trainer Steve Asmussen is 36-2-2-4 with a $0.34 ROI over the past five years with horses trying turf for the first time following a win. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
Celestial Sighting (Beyer: 62)
◗ Took advantage of a hot pace to win her debut against New York-breds by a length Aug. 3.
“She looked like she came back a little more nervous than she was, a little hyped up,” trainer Rudy Rodriguez said. “She’s training good and eating good. She’s a baby. I don’t think it’s going to be a bad idea to run her.”
◗ Irad Ortiz Jr., the leading rider at the meet, has the call from the rail.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 1 Celestial Sighting. Trainer Rudy Rodriguez is 13-6-0-3 with a $2.30 ROI over the past five years with juveniles in sprints in the second career start following a winning debut. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan