Ward unleashes Pharoah's Dynasty in National Thoroughbred League Juvenile Sprint

Wesley Ward has higher aims for the 4-year-old turf miler Funtastic Again than Sunday’s $500,000 Tight Spot Handicap. Ward scratched Funtastic Again from the restricted $500,000 Tapit Stakes on Thursday at Kentucky Downs and as of Thursday seemed bent on scratching him again from the Tight Spot, looking instead to the $2 million Mint Millions on Sept. 7.

“If you’re gonna be a bear,” Ward texted, replying to a query regarding plans for Funtastic Again, “be a grizzly.”

Even absent Funtastic Again, Ward has a potentially ferocious beast to run Sunday in a Kentucky Downs Stakes. Pharoah’s Dynasty is one of 11 2-year-olds entered in the $1 million National Thoroughbred League Juvenile Sprint. The colt showed his fangs winning his debut and lone start, a June 23 turf-sprint maiden at Aqueduct, and while he has a difficult inside draw in this 6 1/2-furlong dash, Pharoah’s Dynasty, under John Velazquez, might have enough talent to overcome it.

In the Aqueduct race, Pharoah’s Dynasty made the lead and raced under a tight Velazquez hold down the backstretch and into the turn. Pursuers stacking up behind and outside him, Pharoah’s Dynasty unleashed an 11.18-second furlong from the quarter pole to the eighth pole and finished off his race with an 11.60 fraction before galloping out many lengths in front, his ears still pricked turning onto the backstretch to be pulled up.

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This colt was born to sprint on turf. His dam, Funfair, as a 2-year-old romped to a debut turf-sprint win before a facile victory in the Colleen, a grass dash at Monmouth. Her son Born Great in the space of one week captured a maiden race and a first-level allowance, both at 6 1/2 furlongs during the 2021 Kentucky Downs meet. And another son, Four Wheel Drive – trained by Ward – in 2019 won his debut in a Colonial Downs turf-sprint stakes, took down the Futurity at Belmont, and then captured the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. And from the look of recent workout video at Keeneland, Pharoah’s Dynasty could be following a similar path.

Ward bred, owned, and trained another NTL Juvenile Sprint entrant, Homie, through a debut victory earlier this summer at Horseshoe Indianapolis, after which the horse was solid to Patricia’s Hope and turned over to Ward’s friend, trainer Larry Rivelli, who has been working Homie at Hawthorne. Under Who’s Radar thumped New York-bred maidens debuting in a Saratoga dirt sprint and brings more speed to the party, and a pace meltdown is just what the connections of Black Forza and Bridle a Butterfly are looking for.

Bridle a Butterfly comes from Florida, where the Glen Hill Farm homebred powered past turf-sprint maiden foes winning his debut July 28 and, like Pharoah’s Dynasty, galloping out like he was looking for more. From the first crop of Country House, Bridle a Butterfly is out of the turf-sprint stakes winning mare Sly Storm. He was 21-1 in his debut and figures to be overlooked Sunday.

Black Forza, meanwhile, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite on the strength of wins at Fairyhouse in Ireland and, more recently, in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes over six furlongs Aug. 14 at Goodwood. Black Forza broke poorly and rallied strongly in the Richmond, run over a straight course, but got turning experience at Fairyhouse, where he beat a decent juvenile named Rudi’s Apple.

The Juvenile Sprint, race 10, comes immediately after the one-mile Tight Spot, which will lose in addition to Funtastic Again another horse in its main body, Siege of Boston, who finished third Thursday in the Tapit. With Funtastic Again out, rail-drawn Goliad looks like the race’s controlling speed. Trained by California-based Richard Mandella, Goliad will try to follow in the hoofprints of Nineeleventurbo, trained by California-based Neil Drysdale, who set the pace from the rail and nearly won the Tapit.

The more pace the better for Dataman, who cuts back in distance after a creditable fifth-place finish stretching out to 1 3/8 miles in the Grade 1 United Nations. Dataman was coming off closing wins in the one-mile Henry Clark and the 1 1/16-mile Cliff Hanger.

“I never thought of him necessarily as a 1 1/2-mile horse,” trainer Graham Motion said. “I thought the U.N. was a good spot to experiment, and I thought he ran well. This is kind of an intermediary spot for him. I think with all the ups and downs, this could play a little longer than a mile.”

While Dataman might not have loved 11 furlongs at Monmouth in July, Money Supply had a bad time in the starting gate Aug. 11 at Saratoga, where he reared at the break and lost his chance in the Grade 1 Fourstardave.

“I don’t know what got into him that day,” said trainer Joe Sharp, who won two Kentucky Downs races Thursday.

Money Supply had previously scored a hard-fought victory in a salty renewal of the Jonathan Schuster Memorial at Horseshoe Indianapolis, his turf debut. On dirt, Money Supply put together a five-race winning streak late last year and early in 2023, a skein capped by a win in the $250,000 Mineshaft at Fair Grounds, where Money Supply also finished third in the $500,000 New Orleans Classic – all that after Sharp and owner Jordan Wycoff claimed the gelding for $35,000 in August 2023.

The 125-pound high weight, Webslinger, who was seventh in the U.N., cuts back to one mile for the first time in 13 starts and will be coming from the clouds. He won’t, at least, have a bear named Funtastic Again to run down.

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