Ward has Maven ready for Lucky Coin Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – As is the case with most turf sprint stakes run at Saratoga, the likely first stop for any scribe is trainer Wesley Ward’s barn. And Friday’s $120,000 Lucky Coin is no exception, with Ward sending out the favorite and one to beat, Maven, in the 5 1/2-furlong dash restricted to horses who have not won a stakes race in 2021.

Maven is already a stakes winner, having captured the Group 3 Prix du Bois as a 2-year-old two years ago at Chantilly. He has started just five times since and but twice in 2021, a season that began with a spectacular 2 1/4-length allowance victory on April 15 at Keeneland for which he received a 104 Beyer Speed Figure. That performance prompted Ward to send Maven back across the Atlantic once again, to Royal Ascot for the Group 1 King’s Stand on June 15, where he finished a tiring 11th after prompting the pace for nearly a half-mile.

“I actually thought he was a little short going into that Keeneland race to start the year and when he ran so big, it inspired me to take him over to Ascot,” Ward said. “He broke from the gate well with Johnny [Velazquez], they were smoking early, but he was right there. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, he just didn’t have it that day.

“He had no excuses. He just got beat. So I brought him home, kicked him out for a couple of weeks to get over the trip, and he’s been firing each and every week in the morning ever since. And he should be dead fit now, having had two starts under his belt.”

Ward said he chose the Lucky Coin for Maven over a much more lucrative option, the $1 million Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint on Sept. 11, citing both the distance and timing of the races as the reason for that decision.

“I think he’s much better at 5 1/2 furlongs, the race at Kentucky Downs [six furlongs] doesn’t fit him, and the timing is good to bring him back after this at Keeneland, where he’s already proven he loves the course,” Ward said. “This doesn’t look like the toughest race on paper, although you know how it can be with turf sprints, sometimes a horse can jump up and run a huge race, but he’s got a great post, he’ll love the distance, he’s ripping fast, and if he runs his race they won’t beat him.”

Velazquez will again have the riding assignment Friday.

The Lucky Coin lured a field of eight that includes Guildsman, who easily defeated Maven when rallying to win the Grade 3 Franklin-Simpson going 6 1/2 furlongs a year ago at Kentucky Downs, and Pulsate, who finished second behind Battle Station in this race last summer. Other contenders include the recently stakes-placed The Connector, Maxwell Esquire, who has not finished worse than second in three starts over the local strip, Noble Emotion, Backtohisroots, and Holiday Stone.

Guildsman is winless in seven starts since his neck decision over Island Commish in the Franklin-Simpson. He’ll try to return quick dividends for trainer Robert Falcone Jr. and his new connections, who haltered the French-bred gelding for $40,000 out of a troubled sixth-place finish on June 12 at Belmont Park.

It’s been close to two years since Pulsate last visited the winner’s circle, his most recent victory coming under allowance conditions on the Aqueduct turf course in his 2019 finale. Pulsate has started but twice since the 2020 Lucky Coin, finishing a game second in his 2021 debut on July 4 before returning to the main track to run fourth under high-level optional-claiming and allowance conditions here four weeks ago.