Barn Tour: Ward updates on 7 Royal Ascot hopefuls + 5 others

Things are going well for trainer Wesley Ward these days.

He’s tied with Joe Sharp in the Churchill Downs standings, with his 10 wins coming from only 24 starts. And he’s had career-best earnings in four of the last five years.

“I'm starting to get better horses,” Ward said Wednesday as he was making a rainy drive to Churchill Downs to pick up a horse.

He also will make his customary journey to Royal Ascot this year with seven runners after sitting out the meet in 2025 for the first time. “Got some nice horses, I think, this year going over there,” Ward said.

Ward provided updates on those seven Ascot-bound youngsters and five others in his stable for Horse Racing Nation’s Barn Tour series, starting with his Ascot shippers.

Ruiva. This 2-year-old Munnings filly, a Three Chimneys homebred, led gate to wire to win her April 29 debut at Churchill Downs by seven lengths. “Ruiva is a filly that I'm really excited about. She's highly intelligent, was quick to break and learn her lessons early on. … And she looked speedy, but I wasn't quite sure how good she was. So we just entered her a few times at Keeneland with only a few workouts, because we just kind of took her time with her, and scratched her. I had her in just in case the one I had in at Keeneland, something went wrong, sick or what have you, temperature that babies get. Kind of had her as a just-in-case type horse in those races because I really didn't want to run against myself in the 2-year-old races. I just wanted to run one. And so each time we scratched, we worked her back again. And every work was more impressive than the next. And then we ran her with only a few workouts underneath her at Churchill. … Man, she ran a powerful race. Probably the most impressive two-year race I've had in a few years. And she ran a 89 Beyer Speed Figure, and she ran 12 on the Ragozin sheets. I haven't had one do that in a while.” She could run in the Norfolk (G2) against colts. “If it's looks to be wet, rainy at the during the latter part of the Ascot days, we'll probably come back and run her in the Queen Mary (G2). … But she's just a super, super highly intelligent filly and total sweetheart to be around the barn. Like you'd want to bring her in in your living room with you. Seriously, she’s like a Labrador retriever.”

Outfielder. This 3-year-old Speightstown colt is 2-for-2 this year after winning stakes at Turfway Park and Churchill and is headed to the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup, going six furlongs at Royal Ascot. Last year, Outfielder won his debut in May then “jumped into the deep end of the pool” with a start in the Group 1 Prix Morny in France, finishing fourth. He came back with an allowance win at Keeneland and then was 14th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. “We were kind of not sure of the Breeders' Cup, because he was sort of in between. A five-eighths sprint is a little quick, which it was at Del Mar, not 5 1/2. So to kind of cut him back or to go the mile, and we chose to go the mile and they just went extremely quick up front. Forty-five and change for 2-year-olds, it was just too much for him to handle. And so I gave him the whole winter off, brought him back and he's had two really big wins. So we're real happy him. Big, huge colt too.”

Fanshell Beach. This 2-year-old Corniche filly rolled to a 5 1/4-length win in her April 28 debut at Churchill Downs going 4 1/2 furlongs. “We’re looking at the Queen Mary as well, or possibly the Windsor Castle – that now has a restriction to it. It's a six-furlong race, the sires have to have won at seven furlongs or further. So she meets the qualifications with Corniche being her sire. We'll make that decision a little closer once we get over there. I've had a lot more success with the five-furlong races than the six.”

Ez Tina. This 2-year-old filly by Golden Pal went gate to wire to win her May 17 debut at Woodbine by 4 3/4 lengths. “That was always, in the wintertime, my favorite of all the 2-year-olds. She’s a big, powerful filly by my sire Golden Pal. So we (Breeze Easy and Resolution Road Stables) paid a lot of money for her, paid $600,000 for a freshman sire, not knowing what he could do. I just have a lot of faith in that sire that he's going to throw something like her. … She came back with a high 85 Beyer. So that's really good for a 2-year-old at that time of year. And shipping up to Woodbine and running and coming back. So we've got big, big plans for this filly.” The Queen Mary is a possibility for her too.

Shining Moment. Also a 2-year-old filly by Golden Pal, she was second in her April debut at Keeneland and then went gate to wire to win at Churchill Downs on Thursday. “She's a filly that always kind of looked pretty quick. And we were waiting for that grass race here at Keeneland. The only thing about the turf races they have here at Keeneland is 5 1/2 furlongs is a little far for a 2-year-old in April. Most of the 2-year-old races on the dirt are four and a half, just because it's hard to get a 2-year-old ready to run 5 1/2 furlongs. So she was sort of a victim of such a long race, and then she came back, and the race was carded at five at Churchill, off she went, she won. So filly's a really nice filly. She's really growing up and out, growing into her frame. So I'm excited for this filly as well.” She also is pointed to the Queen Mary.

Through the Years. This 2-year-old, Ireland-bred filly by No Nay Never was second in her April debut at Keeneland and then led gate to wire to win a maiden special weight at Belmont at the Big A on May 14, breaking the track record at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf. “I'm hopeful that this filly goes on to do some good things. She broke a track record there the other day at Aqueduct. She as well is probably going to be going over and another one penciled in for the Queen Mary. And if we get there and Aidan O'Brian has something for Coolmore going into the race, we may go in a different direction to try to get her some black type, because here in America on the grass, we don't have anything on turf for these 2-year-olds that win until late August. So we're kind of sitting here ready to go with no race. … We're going to probably just get her there and there may be an opportunity in France.” Through the Years is co-owned by Coolmore partners.

Bacio. This 3-year-old son of Maclean’s Music was 2-for-3 last year and returned in April with an optional-claiming allowance win at Churchill. “We kind of gave him the winter off by design … and he just had a little trouble putting some weight on. And so we took a little bit extra time getting him back and he was really ready after Keeneland. So we ran him against the older horses in a two-other-than allowance race, which we thought maybe going into the race that it may be a little bit too much for him to take on older horses as a 3-year-old in April. And he just bounced away from there and off he went (to a two-length win). So we're looking at a stake race at Royal Ascot, a listed stake, and planning on taking him over there.”

Other runners

Waggley. This 2-year-old Life Is Good filly won her April 8 debut at Keeneland and the black-type Kentucky Juvenile Stakes at Churchill during Kentucky Derby week. “She was kind of an overwhelming favorite going into that race. And it scratched down to a three-horse field, including her. She broke a little slow and Joel (Rosario) kind of got her going and then the outside horse came down and she clipped heels going into the first turn and then eased around and won. Didn't win in the most impressive fashion, but certainly 2-for-2, and she's got a big future in her. … Thinking about going to Iowa (for the Prairie Gold Lassie Stakes). I've won that race a couple of times, 2-year-old race. It's five and a half, and it should kind of tell us what type of filly we have. And then maybe with her go on to Del Mar, the Sorrento (G3), if it all comes together.”

Don’t Even. This 3-year-old filly by Violence debuted with a seventh-place loss as fall at Keeneland and returned in April with a 2 1/2-length win at Churchill Downs. “Don't Even took a while to kind of get there. A bunch of little minor issues she had and finally got her to the races and she ran a big race. A filly that I don't want to run her back too quick because if she gets some fast workouts, sometimes it kind of zaps her, weight-wise. So we're kind of giving her a little time, put her weight back on after a big win. And then we'll probably point for something at Saratoga, because she's eligible for that … starter allowance condition.”

Gypsy Art. This 3-year-old gelding by Munnings broke his maiden May 7 at Churchill in his fifth start. “Gypsy Art ran a good race in his win, showed a new sort of talent where he came from behind and set up in front and he came home with a flourish. So we'll put him in an allowance race and see how he develops.”

Shoot It True. This 4-year-old Munnings filly has finished second in her last three starts, most recently the Unbridled Sidney (G2) on May 1. “She's a very nice filly, and there's a lot of racing left in her. Excited to get her on the dirt, but she's had some soundness issues. That’s why I've kept her on the grass. We're going to try for the Intercontinental (G2) on the grass during the Belmont festival weekend. Then after that, we're going to put her back to the dirt. It's just that she's a big, powerful filly. And I was kind of hoping, being that Breeders Cup’s here at our home track at Keeneland, that we could keep her sound enough to where we could run her on the dirt at Keeneland in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. So in doing that, we're going to try to keep her on the grass and then run her one time on the dirt there prior to the Breeder's Cup to see how she runs and then hopefully get her into the Breeders’ Cup sound.”

Nakatomi. “One of the barn favorites,” the gelding by Firing Line is now 7 years old and finished fifth in the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G2) in his only start this year. “Unfortunately, he got away slow in Dubai, and he came with a big run. But other than that, he's going to be ready to go at Saratoga when they open up the main meet. … We’ll maybe get an allowance race to kind of get him back on the winning end of things hopefully and then on to the Vanderbilt (G1) or something like that.”