For Ward, it's have juvenile, will travel

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It is a van ride of a little less than 75 miles from Keeneland, where trainer Wesley Ward is based, to Churchill Downs, where on Friday stablemates Chelsea Cloisters, Moonlight Romance, and Stillwater Cove will contest the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

Child’s play.

All the Ward trainees made a trip of nearly 4,000 miles, as the crow flies, to the Royal Ascot meeting in June, where Shang Shang Shang - who was scratched from the Breeders' Cup owing to soft turf - defeated males by a nose to win the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes and her three sisters-in-arms finished far back in other stakes. Chelsea Cloisters also took a side jaunt to France, finishing second in the Group 3 Prix du Bois.

:: Breeders' Cup PP packages: Get PPs, betting strategies, DRF+ Pro access, and more

The three come to the Breeders’ Cup having made their most recent starts at three different tracks in two countries. The speedy Stillwater Cove, a stakes winner at Saratoga over the summer, gets to cut back in distance Friday after fading to fifth going a mile in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine. Moonlight Romance won the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Turf Sprint, while Chelsea Cloisters was caught late in the Indian Summer Stakes at Keeneland to be a close second. Together, the four give Ward a third of the field of 12 for this 5 1/2-furlong race.

“My race,” Ward said with a grin during a recent morning training at Keeneland.

The Juvenile Turf Sprint indeed seems tailor-made for Ward, who is known for conditioning precocious, globe-trotting youngsters for sharp efforts in audacious campaigns. Ward, who turned 50 earlier this year, became the first American trainer to saddle a winner at Royal Ascot in 2009, when Strike the Tiger upset the Windsor Castle Stakes. The next day, he followed up by sending out another juvenile, Jealous Again, to win the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes.

Ward now owns 10 wins at Royal Ascot – seven of those coming with juveniles. The list includes the 2014 Windsor Castle with Hootenanny, who went on to finish second in the Group 1 Prix Morny before returning to the United States to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, giving Ward one of his two victories at the Breeders’ Cup. The other came with champion Judy the Beauty in the 2014 Filly and Mare Sprint.

Ward’s other juvenile stakes wins across the pond have included the 2013 Norfolk with No Nay Never, whose unbeaten campaign also included the Prix Morny; the 2015 Queen Mary with Acapulco, who went on to finish second in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes against older horses; and the 2016 Queen Mary with Cartier Award European champion Lady Aurelia, who won the Prix Morny, finished third in the Group 1 Cheveley Park, and won the Group 1 King’s Stand back at Ascot the following season.

All those youngsters, except Acapulco, were debut winners in April at the Keeneland meet, where Ward typically unveils his juveniles in some of the first 2-year-old maiden races of the year. What does it take to have a juvenile ready to go early in the season, and then to make the trip to compete in Europe’s top events?

“First of all, you have to have a fast one,” Ward said. “Most of the time, they have to have a turf pedigree. That’s not always the case. A lot of horses, you put them on the grass, and you wouldn’t think, pedigree-wise, they are [turf horses], but they take to it. Like Unfinished Symph, he had a dirt pedigree. I put him on the grass, and he almost won the Breeders’ Cup Mile.”

While Ward has already found success at the Breeders’ Cup, the addition of the Juvenile Turf Sprint to the program provides an additional opportunity for his precocious world travelers to train on to a fall goal against an international field.

“It’s a fantastic race,” Ward said. “At this time of year, for the most part, I’m kinda looking to give them a break because there’s really nothing for a 2-year-old turf sprinter. Acapulco, No Nay Never, there was just nothing for them here. [This race] has opened up a lot of opportunities not only for me but for the Europeans. It should be a really good, exciting race.”