Ward will have usual presence at Royal Ascot

Forget about the men dressed to resemble penguins or magicians – whatever it is they’re going for – or the traditional betting market on the color of The Queen’s dress when she arrives at the racecourse in a horse-drawn carriage. What really distinguishes Royal Ascot is its unusual narrative arc.

Humans are conditioned to expect rising dramatic tension. Think Breeders’ Cup, where the most important, richest race, the Classic, is the last of the meeting. Royal Ascot’s five-day run begins with the Queen Anne Stakes, a Group 1 mile. The Tuesday card rolls on with the Group 1 St. James’s Palace Stakes and the Group 1 King’s Stand, and if you miss Day 1, you have missed the best Royal Ascot has to offer.

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One person who does not miss Royal Ascot – American trainer Wesley Ward. Ward sent nine horses for his annual Ascot assault but only runs eight at the meet, with Nappa Spirit redirected from one of a couple options at Ascot to the Prix du Bois on June 20 at Chantilly. Ward has opening day bullets with Maven (who won the 2019 Prix du Bois) in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes and with Kaufymaker, the early fixed-odds betting favorite for the Coventry, a six-furlong dash for 2-year-olds.

Maven exits the fastest race of his life, a Keeneland second-level turf-sprint allowance race, his first start since being gelded, but is not the best American hope in the five-furlong, straight-course King’s Stand. The Brendan Walsh-trained, David Ross-owned Extravagant Kid shipped to Dubai and won the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint in March and travels to England with a real chance.

“He traveled great, settled in good, trained this morning and everything went really good,” Walsh said Thursday. “He just seems to thrive on the travel.”

Battaash has won the King’s Stand, finished second in it twice, and is the early favorite to notch a second victory.

Palace Pier, who looks like the best miler in Europe for the time being, is an extremely short favorite for the Queen Anne, which includes 2020 Breeders’ Cup Mile upset winner Order of Australia.

Ward calls Kaufymaker, his Coventry starter, the “best” 2-year-old in his 2020 Ascot arsenal. “Some of the other five-furlong horses are quicker, but she’s the best, in my opinion,” Ward said. Ward does plenty of weather watching in advance of the trip, hoping for good going that will suit his horses.

The course should be good on Tuesday before a chance of rain comes into the forecast, but Ward expects nothing quicker than good on opening day. “Tuesday it should be pretty good, but the problem is they water the hell out of the course. It’s never fast and firm for opening day,” said Ward.

Tuesday’s third Group 1, the one-turn-mile St. James’s Palace for 3-year-olds, had a bunched betting market late this week, with English 2000 Guineas winner Poetic Flare tepidly favored over Mostahdaf.

The Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes over 10 furlongs headlines the Wednesday program and is expected to bring out Love, who demonstrated superstar power last year at age 3 but hasn’t raced since August. Wet course conditions cut short her 2020 campaign and delayed her 4-year-old debut, with Aidan O’Brien scratching Love from the Tattersalls Gold Cup last month after the course came up very soft. Love is expected to face Lord North, last seen winning the Group 1 Dubai Turf over nine furlongs.

Ward on Wednesday runs Belmont Park turf-sprint maiden winner Twilight Gleaming in the Group 2 Queen Mary over five furlongs, a 2-year-old race he has won five times, including in 2020 with Campanelle.

“She’s probably the quickest one of all,” Ward said. Ruthin, a debut winner turf sprinting at Keeneland, goes in the Windsor Castle and, Ward said, should be less green second time out now that she’s been fitted with a figure-eight noseband and a tongue tie.

Another American 2-year-old, Artos, also runs in the Queen Mary, and will be trainer Rusty Arnold’s first Ascot starter.

Thursday is Gold Cup Day, which means Stradivarius is running. The 7-year-old staying superstar has won this 2 1/2-mile race three years in a row and is heavily favored to take a fourth. Ward takes two shots in the Norfolk Stakes with Lucci and Nakatomi. Nakatomi outworked Lucci, Ward said, when they went as a team at Keeneland before shipping overseas, but Lucci, also adding a figure eight and a tongue tie, got the better of Nakatomi when the two worked in England.

Friday’s card features two Group 1s, the Coronation, a mile race around a bend for 3-year-old fillies, and the six-furlong, straight-course Commonwealth Cup for 3-year-olds, which includes mild early favorite, Campanelle. The filly was entered to make her 3-year-old debut in April at Keeneland but was scratched from a turf-sprint stakes with a bruised heel, Ward said.

English 1000 Guineas winner Mother Earth goes in the Coronation.

Closing day, Saturday, Ward runs perhaps his longest price of the week, Golden Bell, in the Albany on a card headlined by the six-furlong Diamond Jubilee. And then Royal Ascot goes dark for another year.