'She runs well fresh'; Ward plots Kimari's Breeders' Cup path

Trainer Wesley Ward on Saturday solidified least one entrant for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint when Cambria scored in stakes company at Kentucky Downs.

In the coming days, he’ll consider options for another stakes-winning filly in the division as it pertains to getting to the Nov. 1 race at Santa Anita Park.

Ward said Ten Broeck Farm’s Kimari could appear in Keeneland’s $200,000 Indian summer Stakes on Oct. 6 or train straight into the Breeders’ Cup.

“One of the two is what we’ll do,” the trainer added, with the Indian summer in its second season on the stakes schedule in Lexington, Ky. The 5 1/2-furlong race grants a “Win and You’re In” trip to the championships.

Kimari broke her maiden at Keeneland on April 25, but that was when running 4 1/2 furlongs on the main track. From there, she emerged as something special when beaten narrowly in Royal Ascot’s Queen Mary (G2).

“She ran a powerful race over there,” Ward said. “We were really happy with that. Unfortunate loss, but she dug down deep.”

Kimari returned to the U.S. an authoritative, four-length winner of the Aug. 14 Bolton Landing Stakes at Saratoga. The filly published her first work back on Sunday morning, breezing five furlongs over Keeneland's turf in a minute flat.

“Time’s always on your side. The problem is when you don’t have time,” Ward said. “You can see how things are shaping up and shifting around — how she’s doing.

“She runs well fresh, so that’s probably the route we’re going to take training her in there. But we’ll have to see.”

Ward saddled three runners in last year’s inaugural Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint at Churchill Downs: Chelsea Cloisters (second), Stillwater Cove (10th) and Moonlight Romance (12th)

Chelsea Cloisters had taken a similar route as Kimari, running at Ascot, then in France before taking on the Bolton Landing and Indian Summer. Moonlight Romance, meanwhile, won the same race as Cambria, the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Turf Sprint.

Ward said Saturday that Maven, the first stakes winner by American Pharoah, is no longer a Breeders’ Cup candidate and will get the rest of the season off.

This year’s $1 million race will run at five furlongs at Santa Anita.