Ward fine-tuning his sizable Royal Ascot arsenal

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Trainer Wesley Ward worked four Royal Ascot-bound 2-year-olds on the Arlington grass course on Sunday, and Arlington will serve as one of two hubs from which Ward plans to launch his biggest British invasion yet.

A four-time winner at the Royal Ascot meet – and ground-breaking in his decision to send horses annually to the big Ascot meeting in June – Ward at this point has 13 runners lined up for eight different stakes during the five-day Royal meeting, which starts Tuesday, June 16. Ward has never sent more than six horses for Ascot races and thinks this is by far his strongest raiding party yet.

“I really, really feel confident in certain ones this year,” Ward said. “I’ve had four winners there, and I feel confident I can at least win a couple races this year. The babies are just doing so well.”

The four horses – Back At the Ranch, Bruised Orange, Laxfield Road, and Storied Tale – who breezed in two sets of two Sunday at Arlington all are 2-year-olds, as are five more horses in the intended group. Ward also plans to run four older horses: Hootenanny, Big Macher, Undrafted, and Luck of the Kitten.

Ward will be in action during four of the five Royal Ascot cards. On June 16, he runs Finnegan, a sharp Pimlico turf-sprint maiden winner last out, in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes, a race Ward said he covets. Also on that Tuesday card, Ward has Acapulco and Ruby Notion for the Windsor Castle Stakes.

On Wednesday, June 17, Ward runs Luck of the Kitten in the Group 3 Jersey for 3-year-olds and a pair of 2-year-old fillies, Storied Tale and Bruised Orange, in the Group 2 Queen Mary.

Ward has nothing for the Thursday, June 18, program but will be busy again the next day with Hootenanny in the newly created Group 1 Commonwealth Cup for 3-year-olds at six furlongs and Back At the Ranch and Laxfield Road in the Group 3 Albany for 2-year-old fillies.

On Saturday, June 20, Ward runs Undrafted and Big Macher (who makes his first start for Ward) in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and Smarty Kitten and Love the Kitten in the Chesham Stakes.

The England-bound horses based at Arlington and Keeneland will meet up at Indianapolis and fly directly to London Stanstead Airport on a charter scheduled to depart at 4:30 a.m. Eastern on June 10, Ward said. Final arrangements about where the group will stable in the days before they race are still being made, but Ward is seeking “a farm or a stable five to 10 minutes away from Ascot,” he said. Joel Rosario and Frankie Dettori will have the mounts on the Ascot starters.

“The flight should be pretty seamless, and the weather has been extremely dry, which is what we need, and we’ll cross our fingers it stays like that,” Ward said.