USA: Wesley Ward is eyeing the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot for Love Reigns after the filly overcame serious trouble in running for a successful comeback at Keeneland on Friday [April 14].
Ward habitually readies his main royal-meeting contenders at the current spring meet at his home base Keeneland, where he leads the way among trainers this year with five winners as of Friday’s programme.
Although he is best known for the prowess of his two-year-olds at Royal Ascot, Ward won the King’s Stand with Lady Aurelia in 2017. Like Love Reigns, she was a three-year-old filly carrying the colours of Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Stables – and she also scored at Keeneland on her seasonal debut before travelling to England.
“She’s a special filly,” said Ward, speaking of Love Reigns. “I’ve kind of been waiting for this to come out since her maiden win here. She likes Keeneland, she loved the course when she broke her maiden here a year ago, and we’re just real, real happy it worked out.”
After a good break in the Limestone Stakes, a $250,000 Listed race over 5½f, Love Reigns found herself bottled up behind horses and was stopped in her run. However, Joel Rosario switched to the inner in the nick of time and she surged home for a decisive half-length victory over stablemate Lady Hollywood, a French G3 winner last year for former trainer Alice Haynes.
“Joel is kind of my come-from-behind guy that I ride on horses that I like to do that with – which aren’t many, but this being one,” said Ward.
“He’s just a phenomenal rider. He gets them back there, gets them to relax. He had us a little worried there at the eighth pole, but thank God the seas parted and he came through and he won.”
Asked about Royal Ascot, Ward said: “We hope so – Barbara did it before with Lady Aurelia, a three-year-old filly, so hopefully with this filly – she’s got big shoes to fill, but hopefully we can do it.
“Today, I’ll tell you, that was great,” he added. “Any three-year-old filly in a tough sprint – you know, these are the toughest three-year-old fillies on the grass sprinting in the United States right now – so for her to do that, overcome all that trouble and still win, she’s a good filly.”
On the same card at Keeneland, dual Breeders’ Cup winner Modern Games suffered a shock odds-on defeat behind 9-1 chance Chez Pierre (Arnaud Delacour/Flavien Prat) in the Maker’s Mark Mile.
Sent off odds-on favourite for the G1 contest, the Godolphin five-year-old claimed second place at the wire but was too far back to land a blow on the winner, who scored by 3½ lengths after setting sail early in the stretch.
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