Ward stretches Bound for Nowhere in Kentucky Downs' Tourist Mile
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Eclipse Sportswire
Wesley Ward has become as much a part of Kentucky Downs as grass racing. You know he’s going to be well-represented at America’s most unique race meet. The question often is: where?
Ward, a three-time Kentucky Downs training champion, entered two horses in Saturday’s $750,000 Tourist Mile, presented by WinStar Farm: Master Merion, last year’s Franklin-Simpson Stakes winner over the course, and the sprinter Bound for Nowhere, last seen racing when a very close third in Royal Ascot’s Group 1 Diamond Jubilee in June.
Except for Ascot’s Royal Hunt Cup, when Master Merion finished 12th of 30 while losing by a total of only 6 1/2 lengths, the 4-year-old gelding has a terrific record at a mile. Bound for Nowhere has never raced beyond six furlongs and next week’s $500,000, Grade 3 KentuckyCup Turf Sprint might seem made to order.
Other trainers in the Tourist Mile have speculated that Bound for Nowhere -- romping winner of Keeneland's Grade 2 Shakertown in April before heading to England and unbeaten in four U.S. sprint races -- will be scratched. Those trainers are following conventional wisdom.
“We’re going to scratch Master Merion,” Ward said by phone Thursday. I’ve been wanting to stretch Bound for Nowhere out for some time, and he’s been training great here at Keeneland since he came back from England. My plan was always to run him in the Tourist Mile. I was going back and forth whether or not I should run him in the Sprint or this race. My plan was to enter in this race and see if it’s the spot I wanted to try him out going a mile. After drawing the outside (No. 8) post, and going over it with Julio Garcia, who is undefeated on him and gets on him every day, we decided to run here.
“He’s a lovely horse to train," continued Ward, who also owns Bound for Nowhere. "He’s a sprinter, but you’d never know it if you were around him. Julio gallops him with one hand, and he’s like a pony. And he’s a big horse, too. Very intelligent and really, really laid-back dude. When he drew that outside post, Julio can do whatever he wants from there…. That race at Royal Ascot, it’s a six-furlong race, but you really need a miler to win a race like that. It’s a slight uphill, but it’s a straight course. Horses will go a little farther if they go around turns, so you really need a miler. ”
Ward said Master Merion would run in either next Thursday’s $250,000 Old Friends Stakes for horses that haven’t won a stakes in 2018 or the $500,000, Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint on Sept. 8. “I may be leaning toward the Sprint,” he said.
Ward has horses in both $400,000, mile 2-year-old stakes Saturday, with Two Shakes in the Exacta Systems Juvenile Fillies and Dragic — also a filly — taking on the boys in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile.
After all, why put two fillies in one race when you can try to win them both? Ward’s reasoning is that if a horse is doing well, why not take a shot? It paid dividends last year when Ultima D won the Exacta Systems Juvenile Fillies rather than going in one of Kentucky Downs’ $135,000 maiden races.
“It really doesn’t bother me as much as it does some trainers and owners,” he said of running a filly against the boys. “I’ve had a lot of success running fillies against the colts. You get a little weight break, but I just think they are a little more forward the first part of the year as 2-year-olds. I think the colts catch up with them in the fall. But this time of the year, I think it’s an advantage.”
Dragic won her debut at Keeneland and then was fourth in Del Mar’s Grade 2 Sorrento. The Kentucky Downs stakes will be her grass debut.
“Her breeding does not suggest she’s a grass horse,” Ward said. “But when you see her breeze on on grass, she floats over it. She definitely likes it, and I’m really looking forward to running her there.”
When cheerfully asked why he didn’t run Dragic in next week’s new $500,000 KentuckyDowns Turf Sprint, also against boys, Ward didn’t hesitate: “I’ve got a couple others for that one as well,” he said with a laugh. Two fillies in fact: Moonlight Romance and Monmouth Park’s Colleen winner Mae Never No.
Two Shakes is a full sister to the Ward-trained Sunset Glow, winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante on dirt and second to Lady Eli in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Two Shakes has raced once, winning at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf at Saratoga by a nose.
“This filly is much better on the grass than dirt,” Ward said. “She ran well at Saratoga, but I think there’s much more to her than that.”
Ward also entered Con Te Partiro in Saturday’s $250,000 One Dreamer for fillies and mares that haven’t won a stakes in 2018. That filly last won seven races ago, at the 2017 Royal Ascot meet, at 20-1 odds. The trainer said she’ll be back in the entries in the $450,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint, one of four Grade 3 races on Sept. 8.
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