American trainer Wesley Ward was absent from Royal Ascot for the first time in a decade due to a setback with Outfielder last season. But, he returns this year with a strong looking team, including Outfielder, adding further intrigue to the historic meeting.
Wesley Ward has saddled 89 runners at the Royal meeting thus far, beginning in 2009. Sprinters Strike The Tiger and Jealous Again kicked off her success, which currently stands on 13 winners at Royal Ascot. Ward’s latest winner here came with Con Te Partiro, who took the Sandringham Handicap in 2017 under Jamie Spencer.
The American handler is itching to return, as he told the Press Association, via Racing TV: “I sure missed it. Coming to Royal Ascot has been a life-changing experience with all the success I have had. It’s really opened up so many doors not only for me but for my family.
“Outfielder’s last breeze on the grass was at Keeneland and he’s training super and he’s coming over for the Commonwealth.
“I’ll have seven in total and we’re getting serious. I’m all excited and I’m ready. I’ve got five two-year-olds and then alongside Outfielder there is a really nice talented three-year-old sprinter called Bacio. Who has won three from four so far.”
“The years are flying by and now some of my winners are siring some of my hopefuls!” – Ward
Ward touched upon the joy of appearing at the meeting, as he said: “I’m really excited to come back with my children and I’ve got white hair and I’m a grandfather now. So it would mean a lot to come back and have another winner – the days are long. But the years are flying by and now some of my winners are siring some of my hopefuls!”
Ward’s voyages to Royal Ascot have come full circle, as his 2020 Norfolk Stakes second Golden Pal sire’s possible Norfolk Stakes contender Ez Tina.
He continued: “I’m also bringing EZ Tina, who is a Golden Pal filly who we took up to Canada. She’s a big filly who we paid $600,000 for. Which is a lot of money for one by a first-season sire, but she validated her purchase price.
However, Ward exuded further confidence in another filly who could line up in the Queen Mary: “If I lined all my two-year-olds up here in a race in America then the favourite would be a filly called Ruiva. She ran the best race of any two-year-old in America so far numbers-wise; she just blitzed them over there just prior to the Kentucky Derby.
“She will have to translate that form from dirt to turf. But she is by Munnings who I have had a lot of success with on the grass. She’s an extremely talented fast filly.”