A Successful Hootenanny at Ward Ranch

Wesley Ward is busy gearing up for the upcoming race meet at Keeneland, but in recent years the seven-time leading trainer at the historic track keeps himself further occupied in the springtime with his side gig as a stallion owner and manager.

GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Hootenanny resides at Ward Ranch just across from the Keeneland grounds. The son of Quality Road was Ward's first Breeders' Cup winner in 2014. When the bay needed a new home in 2019, his former trainer didn't hesitate to take him in. Ward initially planned to breed only his own mares to the stallion, but now that Hootenanny's first crop is succeeding on the racetrack, Ward has a new goal in mind.

In his first year at stud, which he spent at Buck Pond Farm before relocating to Ward Ranch, Hootenanny produced 16 named foals. Now that his first crop of horses are 3-year-olds, eight progeny have seen the starting gate and six are winners including one stakes winner. It's a stat that has Ward believing there is more to come for his stallion.

“With the first couple of crops, I wanted to try to limit him to where I could control the raising and breeding and training,” Ward explained. “Now I'm looking to get him out there to some outside breeders and see what he can do. He's a nice horse and he's certainly well-accomplished as a racehorse in his own right. Hopefully in these first few years, he'll be able to show what he can do.”

Bred by Barronstown and out of a half-sister to GISW Cat Moves (Tale of the Cat), Hootenanny was a $75,000 yearling purchase in 2013. He won on debut by over four lengths the following spring at Keeneland for partners Ward, Ken Donworth and Ben McElroy. After placing in a stake at Pimlico, he was purchased by the Coolmore partnership and pointed toward the Royal Ascot meet, where he claimed the Windsor Castle S. In his next start, he ran a close second in the G1 Darley Prix Morny.

“We were just narrowly beaten,” Ward recalled. “Frankie Dettori beat me. After the race Frankie said, 'If I had been on your horse, I would have won.' So we brought Hootenanny back and trained him up to the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita. Frankie told me that he would win if I put him on the horse, and he did. Hootenanny won my first Breeders' Cup for me. He was a very intelligent horse and with the speed he had, running a mile on the grass was no problem at all.”

After the win in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf–a victory that earned Hootenanny a finalist spot for champion 2-year-old male– the colt returned to the races for three more seasons. He was an allowance winner at Keeneland as a sophomore, placed in a stake at Woodbine at four and ran second in the GII King Edward S. at five. He retired with five wins to his credit and earned $876,698.

Hootenanny gave Ward his first Breeders' Cup win in 2014 | Horsephotos

While Ward acknowledged that Hootenanny was not what commercial breeders were looking for upon his retirement, he added that the sire has rewarded those who did breed to him in his first season.

“He does have a sway back so for breeding purposes, it was something the commercial breeders didn't really like,” Ward admitted. “But so far with all of his progeny, he hasn't put that trait into his babies and they're all nice runners. They all have great minds like him, they're all kind of docile horses and they're all fast.”

Hootenanny's leading performer to date is Hicksy, a colt trained by Kevin Attard that won second time out by six lengths last October, earning an 80 Beyer Speed Figure, and then claimed the Display S. at Woodbine. His other winners include My Nanny's a Hoot, a filly that broke her maiden early this year and has since claimed an allowance at Fair Grounds, as well as Strange Arrange, a Ward trainee that broke his maiden by six lengths at Turfway Park in March.

Only two of Hootenanny's winners to date are trained by Ward, as the stallion stood at Buck Pond for his first season, but this year's crop of 2-year-olds will represent Ward's broodmare band as well as his own breaking and training process that is highly-regarded for its tremendous success with young maidens.

“He's got some very quick ones that will be coming in probably by late spring, so I'm looking forward to those,” the trainer reported.

Ward knows it's a longshot to believe that his pride and joy, Hootenanny, will ever be recognized on a commercial level, especially because for now, he is relying solely on his own broodmare band to get numbers to the stallion, but he does hope that other breeders looking to race stone cold runners will take note of the sire's early success.

“Being my first Breeders' Cup winner, he's very special,” Ward said. “That's why I wanted to make sure he had a good home and was able to have a few mares to breed. He's been coming through on everything since we first acquired him, from being a racehorse to now as a stallion. He hasn't thrown any champions, but from the limited opportunities that he has had, he has thrown winners. Right now he's kind of a home-based stallion, but hopefully he'll have some interest to where he'll go to a commercial farm.”

And even if that dream doesn't come to fruition, Hootenanny will always have a home at Ward Ranch.