Ward loaded with juveniles for Royal Ascot meet

There will be an American presence on each of the five days of racing at the Royal Ascot meeting in England, which runs from Tuesday through Saturday.

Wesley Ward is preparing 10 horses for stakes, and Joe Orseno has one. The U.S. horses range from veteran sprinters to lightly raced juveniles.

There are eight Group 1 races through the week, the highlight of the British flat-racing season. Each card begins at 9:30 a.m. Eastern and includes just six races.

Tuesday’s program has three Group 1 races – the $755,580 Queen Anne Stakes at a mile for older horses, the $629,650 King’s Stand Stakes at five furlongs, and the $629,650 St. James’s Palace Stakes for 3-year-old milers.

The Orseno-trained Imprimis is scheduled to start in the King’s Stand Stakes on the straightaway course, one of the toughest races of the week. As of Friday, Imprimis was 12-1 with British bookmakers in a race led by Battaash (9-4) and Blue Point (3-1).

Blue Point and Battaash were first and second in the 2018 King’s Stand. Blue Point won the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai in March, while Battaash won the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock Park in England on May 25 in his first start since undergoing a breathing operation in January.

Imprimis is unbeaten in two starts this year, the Silks Run Stakes at five furlongs on turf at Gulfstream Park on March 9 and the Grade 2 Shakertown Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs at Keeneland on April 6, when he overcame trouble at the start to win by a neck.

Frankie Dettori, who has ridden 60 winners at Royal Ascot since 1990, has the mount.

The Tuesday program begins with the Queen Anne Stakes. Le Brivido, trained by Aidan O’Brien, is a lukewarm favorite following a fifth in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury in May. The St. James’s Palace Stakes is led by Phoenix of Spain and Too Darn Hot, first and second in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas on May 25.

Ward’s team, which consists primarily of 2-year-olds, will race Wednesday through Saturday. Ward has won 10 races at Royal Ascot in the last decade and expects to add to that total.

“There are some real nice 2-year-olds that I have here,” he said from London on Friday. “Each year, as a group, they are getting stronger. In the early years, I’d cross my fingers and hope. I should have a good account of myself.

“This is the highlight of my year.”

On Wednesday, Ward plans to start the Belmont Park maiden-race winners Foolish Humor and Karak in the $113,300 Windsor Castle Stakes for 2-year-olds at five furlongs on turf. Chili Petin, a maiden-race winner at Keeneland in April, is a candidate for the Windsor Castle, Wednesday’s Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes, or Friday’s Group 2 Albany Stakes.

The $138,520 Queen Mary for 2-year-old fillies at five furlongs is the designated race for Anna’s Fast and Kimari, the easy winners of maiden special weight races at Keeneland in late April.

On Thursday, Ward intends to run Maven, a maiden-race winner at Aqueduct in April, in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes for 2-year-olds at five furlongs. A day later, Nayibeth, a maiden-race winner at Keeneland in April, is set to start in the Group 3 Albany Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at six furlongs.

From a prize-money standpoint, Saturday could be a big day for Ward. Bound for Nowhere, second in the Shakertown, will start for the second consecutive year in the Group 1, $755,580 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at six furlongs. Bound for Nowhere was third in the race last year. The Diamond Jubilee field is led by Invincible Army, who won the Group 2 Duke of York Stakes at York Racecourse in May.

Ward’s final 2-year-old runner will be Joker On Jack in the Chesham Stakes at seven furlongs on Saturday. Joker On Jack won a maiden race at Keeneland on April 18 and was seventh in an allowance race at Newbury on May 18.

The richest race of the week is the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on Wednesday, which has a purse of $944,475. Magical, the O’Brien-trained 4-year-old filly who was second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs last November, is the future-book favorite at 2-1. She is a slight choice over Sea of Class, who was second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris last October.