Wesley Ward

Named a 'TDN Rising Star' for her 7 1/2-length romp at Keeneland in April, Shoot It True then took on the boys as the heavy favorite in the Kentucky Juvenile Stakes at Churchill Downs May 2 but weakened off the lead after fast fractions to finish fourth behind another classy filly in West Memorial (Caracaro). Unraced since that effort, she lined up again Saturday against the boys in her longest distance to date for Wesley Ward who opted to remove the blinkers for his 5-2 third choice. Sharp from the...

'TDN Rising Star' Long Neck Paula (Uncle Mo) was pitched in against the boys by trainer Wesley Ward--as he is wont to do--in Saturday's $197,500 Bowman Mill Stakes at Keeneland and the calculated gamble paid off, as she held a late charge from Tough Magic to record the second black-type success of her young career. Sent away the 11-4 second favorite exiting a 7 1/2-length victory in the Prairie Meadows Debutante Aug. 23, the $325,000 Keeneland September yearling turned $500,000 OBS March graduate hit the ground running and led early,...

Tickets, please! Keeneland's fall meet has the turnstiles primed Friday and that means the featured GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes will fill the apron on what promises to be massive weekend with some 30 graded races across North America--half of which have Breeders' Cup implications. The signature top-level race at the site of the Old Keene Farm was named for a foundational mare who was bred at Hal Price Headley's Beaumont--where modern-day Mill Ridge resides. Alcibiades won the 1930 Kentucky Oaks for Headley, who was one the Keeneland Association's founders and...

It is no longer referred to as the 'International Festival of Racing' and, sadly, it no longer calls Arlington Park home, but Colonial Downs's Festival of Racing is set for Sunday afternoon, shoved back to Sunday when the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby tracked up the East Coast over the course of the last few days. The featured GI Arlington Million has attracted field of six led by Godolphin's Nations Pride (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), who makes his eighth North American appearance in career start number 18. Winner of the GI...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--There is a good reason why White Sands (Into Mischief), the 3-1 morning-line favorite for Sunday's $200,000, GIII Adirondack for 2-year-old fillies at Saratoga Race Course, isn't going to run. She's not here. Trainer Wesley Ward said Saturday morning on the Saratoga backstretch that White Sands is at Keeneland and likely waiting for one of two races at Del Mar next weekend: the $150,000 GIII Sorrento for 2-year-old fillies on Aug. 10 or the $150,000 GIII Best Pal Stakes for 2-year-olds on Aug. 11. White Sands, owned by...

"My friends thought I was nuts when I got back into the horse business," says Maynard Thompson. "But when those babies are about three to five days old, and you take them outside and turn them loose for the first time, every one of them thinks he's the toughest thing out there. And if that doesn't put a smile on your face, you're not breathing." Which is why Thompson perseveres on 15 acres of gently undulating terrain, a few miles south of Tama on the Iowa River. "I'm 71 years...

COLLEEN S., $102,000, Monmouth, 7-28, 2yo, f, 5fT, :55.64, fm. 1--DREAMAWAY, 118, f, 2, by Flameaway 1st Dam: Dream Dancing (GISW, $483,271), by Tapit 2nd Dam: To Dream About, by Monarchos 3rd Dam: Beautiful Pleasure, by Maudlin 1ST BLACK TYPE WIN. O/B-John C. Oxley (KY); T-Wesley A. Ward; J-Paco Lopez. $60,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $107,740. 2--Lemonpeppasteppa, 118, f, 2, Caravaggio--Saranda, by Smart Strike. ($65,000 2yo '24 OBSAPR). 1ST BLACK TYPE. O-Julian De Mora, Jr.; B-New Horizons Bloodstock LLC (KY); T-Jorge Delgado. $20,000. 3--Me Governor, 118, f, 2, The Factor--Mocha Chip,...

Qatar Racing and Mrs. Fitriani Hay's Nakatomi (Firing Line), a longshot third in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita, broke through with a career-best effort to capture Saturday's GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at the Spa. Backed at odds of 7-2, Nakatomi broke smartly from his rail draw and, somewhat surprisingly, showed good early speed while chasing favored 10-time winner Skelly (Practical Joke) from second through an opening quarter in :22.20. Traveling nicely approaching the quarter pole, Nakatomi set his sights on Skelly at the top of...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - In her days as a Thoroughbred horse trainer, Keri Brion has been associated mainly with steeplechase runners. And she has no problem with that. The jump game has been good to her. Since opening her own stable, the former assistant to the late Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard has trained an Eclipse Award Steeplechase horse in The Mean Queen (Ire) (Doyen {Ire}), who won it in 2021, her first year. But there is more to her training game, and she made people take notice. On Thursday,...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY--Finally, 'TDN Rising Star' Long Neck Paula (Uncle Mo) gets her chance to run at Saratoga Race Course. The 2-year-old filly, trained by Wesley Ward, is one of 11 entered to run in the 106th running of the $175,000 Listed Schuylerville Stakes on Thursday's opening day card at the Spa. Long Neck Paula was the 2-1 morning-line favorite in the June 6 Astoria S. at Saratoga but didn't get to run after the stewards scratched her. Ward had taken her off the grounds for cold water spa therapy,...

Wesley Ward admitted he was looking for an easy spot for  White Sands (Into Mischief) to make her first racetrack appearance, but when the half-sister to sprint champion Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) romped by 9 1/2 lengths in her debut at Belterra Park in May, the trainer immediately circled the Prairie Gold Juvenile Stakes on his calendar. The filly duly delivered again in that 5 1/2-furlong event, defeating the boys in a 13 3/4-length demolition at Prairie Meadows last Saturday. "We had a long time with her," Ward said of...

4th-Belmont The Big A, $90,000, Msw, 6-23, 2yo, 6fT, 1:08.85, fm, 1 1/4 lengths. PHAROAH'S DYNASTY (c, 2, American Pharoah--Funfair {SW}, by More Than Ready) went off as the 5-2 second choice for this debut and the colt wasted no time wrangling the lead away from a longshot up the backstretch. Looking awfully professional around the far turn, the 2-year-old gunned his engine down the lane and graduated at first asking by 1 1/4 lengths over West Beach (Omaha Beach). The last registered foal for his dam, the winner is...