Ward stacks deck in four-way race for spring training title

LEXINGTON, Ky. – There are four trainers with a chance to win the spring-meet training title at Keeneland, and by the look of entries for the final three-day stretch, it looks like Wesley Ward might have the best odds of emerging on top.

Entering the Wednesday card, six-time Sovereign Award winner Mark Casse, with eight wins, holds a tenuous lead over Ken McPeek (7), Ward (6), and Graham Motion (6). But it’s Ward, with horses in five of the eight Wednesday races, who might have a slight edge by the time the 15-day meet closes Friday.

“We’re going to take a run at it, anyway,” Ward said. “Some of our races just haven’t [filled] this meet, especially with the 2-year-olds. Maybe we can catch them on the wire.”

Ward, the leading trainer here at both the spring and fall meets in 2012, is represented in one of the three allowances that dot an eight-race Wednesday card that starts at 1:05 p.m. Eastern. He will saddle Spring Again in the sixth race, a $60,000, first-level allowance for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

The other allowances are a $62,000, second-level turf sprint (race 4) and a $60,000, first-level turf route for older fillies and mares (race 8).

Spring Again will have blinkers back on as part of an oversubscribed lineup that typifies a terrific program of big fields (96 entries, with just four also-eligibles). The Sky Mesa filly wore blinkers in her first four starts before Ward took them off for her last two races. She finished fifth both times.

“I didn’t think she needed them anymore, but I guess her form suggests otherwise,” Ward said. “Plus, she’ll be fresh for this” after more than 10 weeks between races, “and I expect her to run big, as well as she’s been training here.”

The other Wednesday runners for Ward are Cantinero in the first, That’s a Kitten in the second, Newfound Zapper in the third, and Simon Eyes in the fifth.

Casse has no entries Wednesday, while McPeek has one and Motion two. For a nine-race Thursday card, all have three entries apiece except McPeek, who has five.

“The last few days should be really interesting,” said Ward, who in the meantime will be seeing whether he can get Pablo Del Monte off the bubble and into the 140th Kentucky Derby on May 3.

Friday entries were to be drawn Tuesday. Entries for the Saturday opener at Churchill Downs will be drawn Wednesday.

◗ Longshots in the final race Saturday led to a $15,918 carryover in the 50-cent Super High Five jackpot for the last race Wednesday. There was just one winner in the pick five Saturday, worth a whopping $160,712.55.