Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Ward’s great meet continues
ELMONT, N.Y. – Wesley Ward will soon depart for England to join the 10 horses he sent to run at next week’s Royal Ascot meeting. He hopes to carry overseas the momentum he’s built in New York this spring.
Ward has had a dynamite Belmont spring-summer meet, with 12 winners from 32 starters through the first 29 days. He’s won three stakes, including last Thursday’s $150,000 Astoria for 2-year-old fillies with Athens Queen.
“Fantastic meet,” said Ward, who has horses at Keeneland and Belmont. “Everything’s come together race-wise. They’re fitting in the schedule, horses going back and forth out of Keeneland,”
Ward, who last spring won 14 races at Belmont, has three horses entered on Friday’s card. Naturally, Ward will be a player in race 4, a maiden turf sprint for 2-year-old fillies, where he has entered Kuna and Cyclical. Five of Ward’s 12 winners at this meet have come with 2-year-olds.
Kuna is a daughter of Scat Daddy – sire of Triple Crown winner Justify – who brought $300,000 as a yearling last summer at Saratoga.
Cyclical is a homebred daughter by More Than Ready out of the mare Wave Theory, a multiple stakes-placed mare who ran second in the Grade 2 Sands Point here in 2013.
Cyclical, who will be ridden by John Velazquez, has a steadier work tab than Kuna, who will be ridden by Joel Rosario.
Later on the card, Ward will send out Battle Station in a first-level allowance going six furlongs on the turf. Ward scratched Battle Station out of a similar spot going a mile last Friday. This will be Battle Station’s first start on turf since he won his career debut last summer at Saratoga.
Ward said he anticipates being active throughout the remainder of this meet.
“I’m going to support Belmont right to the end because it seems to be good to me,” Ward said. “I’ll maybe be a little light at the start of Saratoga. Pick my spots the first book of the meet, and I’ll be ready right after that.”
Ward said he anticipates running Athens Queen in the Grade 3, $150,000 Schuylerville on July 20, opening day of the Saratoga meet.
Baffert’s horses enjoy N.Y.
Bob Baffert’s three stakes victories at Belmont Park on Saturday – capped by Justify’s front-running score in the Belmont Stakes – continued a remarkable run of good fortune in New York for the Hall of Fame trainer, who is based in Southern California.
Starting with American Pharoah’s victory in the 2015 Belmont Stakes, Baffert has won 11 races from his last 22 starters at Belmont Park. Those wins include two Belmont Stakes and other Grade 1 fixtures such as the Metropolitan Handicap, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Ogden Phipps, and Acorn.
Over the last two Belmont Stakes Days, Baffert has won a running of each of the seven scheduled dirt stakes – three this year, four in 2017. On Thursday, the Baffert-trained Faypien finished second, beaten a neck, in the Grade 3 Intercontinental on turf.
At Saratoga, Baffert has won five of the last seven Grade 1 stakes in which he’s run: two Travers, the Forego, King’s Bishop, and Coaching Club American Oaks.
“For some reason when our horses get here they float over the tracks here,” Baffert said Saturday.
Abel Tasman is responsible for three of the 11 Grade 1 stakes Baffert has won in New York in that span, including her demolition of last Saturday’s $750,000 Ogden Phipps. Abel Tasman shipped back to Southern California on Monday, but it would be hard not to see her returning to the East Coast this summer for a race such as the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga on Aug. 25.
Hoppertunity on Saturday added the Brooklyn Stakes to his deep résumé, which also includes the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup here. Hoppertunity also returned to California on Monday. Baffert said he did not have a next race in mind for him.
Gidu has final Royal Ascot prep
The multiple stakes-winning 3-year-old Gidu worked five furlongs in 1:00.10 Sunday morning over the Belmont turf course and left Monday for a circuitous trip to England for a start at the Royal Ascot meet.
“I thought he breezed very well, went off settled, relaxed, finished up strongly,” said trainer Todd Pletcher, who had John Velazquez work the colt.
Gidu, winner of the Paradise Creek last out, shipped to Kentucky on Monday, and then on Tuesday was to travel to Indianapolis, where he was to get on a flight to London.
Gidu, a son of the great European-based stallion Frankel, is scheduled to run in the Group 1 Commonwealth, a six-furlong race that is run on a straight course on June 22.
Toinette, Rushing Fall breeze
Toinette handed Rushing Fall her first defeat when she beat her a neck in the Grade 3 Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 4.
On Sunday, the two were on the same turf course for the first time since then, working out over Belmont’s turf preparing for a potential rematch in the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Oaks Invitational here on July 7.
Toinette, working by herself, went a half-mile in 48.79 seconds, getting her final quarter in 23.42 seconds.
Rushing Fall, working in company with Quidura, went a half-mile in 48.25 seconds, getting her final quarter in 23.57 seconds. Once under consideration for a trip to Royal Ascot, Rushing Fall will now simply train up to the Belmont Oaks, or she could wait for Saratoga.
Brown already has two others likely for the Belmont Oaks in Significant Form and Mighty Scarlett, second and third to La Signare in last Thursday’s Wonder Again Stakes.