UNDER THE LENS 2021 ROYAL ASCOT COVERAGE SPONSORED BY TATTERSALLS - PAGE 19 Wednesday, June 16, 2021 | Dedicated to the Australasian bloodstock industry - subscribe for free: Click here FOCUS ASIA - PAGE 22 MORNING BRIEFING - PAGE 8 Ward yearning for Everest Read Tomorrow's Issue For berth with ‘right horse’ It's In The Blood US trainer will saddle first season shuttle stallion-sired favourites What's on Metropolitan meetings: Kensington (NSW), for Queen Mary and Windsor Castle at Royal Ascot today Sandown Lakeside (VIC), Belmont (WA), Doomben (QLD) Race Meetings: Gawler (SA), Cambridge (NZ) Barrier trials / Jump-outs: Scone (NSW), Tatura (VIC), Ballarat (VIC), Warrnambool (VIC), Mornington (VIC) International Group races: Ascot (UK) - Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (Gr 1, 1m2f), Queen Mary Stakes (Gr 2, 5f), Queen’s Vase (Gr 2, 1m6f), Duke Of Cambridge Stakes (Gr 2, 1m) International meetings: Ascot (UK), Chelmsford (UK), Hamilton (UK), Ripon (UK), Navan (IRE), Saint-Cloud (FR), Scottsville (SAF) Wesley Ward with Lady Aurelia CAROLINE NORRIS will engross studious watching eyes from BY ALEX WILTSHIRE | @ANZ_NEWS studmasters and breeders on both sides of the ust uttering the name Wesley Ward will strike Tasman. Poetic Flare bolts up in fear into rival Royal Ascot trainers, with the US Ward has made the Queen Mary Stakes St James's Palace Stakes handler having dominated the juvenile sprint (Gr 2, 5f) his own, claiming the five-furlong to emulate sire features at the royal meeting in recent years. contest for fillies on three occasions in the Poetic Flare (3 c Dawn Approach - Maria Lee JAnd this season looks likely to be no last six years, most emphatically by seven- by Rock Of Gibraltar) produced a sublime different, with Ward summoning a team of length destroyer Lady Aurelia (Scat Daddy) performance in the St James's Palace Stakes (Gr eight deadly sprinters to claim the royal jewels in 2016 and most recently by Campanelle 1, 1m) yesterday to follow in the hoofprints of his and escape back across the pond. (Kodiac) a year ago, who will bid to follow sire and become the 15th horse to complete the Yet among his runners this year are two up in the Commonwealth Cup (Gr 1, 6f) on 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m)-St James’s Palace favourites for today’s juvenile contests that Friday. Continued on page 3>> double. Royal Ascot Reports page 16 >> Follow us @anz_news | 1 | Brought to you by Ward yearning for Everest berth with ‘right horse’ | 3 | Wednesday, June 16, 2021 << Continued from page 1 This year, he prepares seven-and- a-half-length maiden winner Twilight Gleaming for the race, who is by Widden Stud Victoria shuttler National Defense (I Am Invincible). The filly is one of two winners so far for her Jean-Luc Lagardere- (Gr 1, 1600m) winning stallion, alongside Italian winner Filly Of Malta. But Twilight Gleaming, who landed her wide-margin victory at Belmont a day later, could, as with Campennelle, Lady Aurelia and Acapulco (Scat Daddy) before her, prove the star act. “This particular filly, she looks like all speed,” Ward told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday. “She just looks like a rocket, a little bit smaller, but she’s the favourite right now in the Queen Mary, and she’s a favourite for a reason.” National Defense covered 55 mares in his first northern hemisphere season at the Irish National Stud, where he stands for €8,000 (approx. AUD$12,500), with those numbers shrinking to 43 in his second year in 2020, but he may have unearthed a star from those limited first-crop numbers. In Australia his appeal has proved more popular. Possessing the sought-after bloodline of Invincible Spirit (Green Desert), he covered 159 mares at an $11,000 fee in his first season when standing at Sun Stud in Victoria, and 88 in his second year, and now forms part of the Widden Ribchester HAUNUI FARM roster after their takeover of the stud earlier this year where he will stand for $9,900. Ruthin, include the Richard Hannon-trained Gisburn who contested Within Twilight Gleaming’s close family we also find a horse who the Coventry Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) yesterday. nearly changed the course of Australian racing history, being out of a sister At 350,000gns, the filly is the most expensive yearling by Ribchester to to Invictus Prince (Dansili) who, in an otherwise unremarkable Australian be sold at auction and is a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Hit The Bid career, ran Winx (Street Cry) close as the $151 outsider in the Winx Stakes (Exceed And Excel). (Gr 1, 1400m) in 2018. “I think a little bit of her speed is from her family and I think a little bit A £75,000 buy from the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale, Twilight Gleaming of that speed is from me,” quipped Ward. was sourced by bloodstock agent Ben McElroy, who also secured “But she’s a beautiful filly, that’s the reason she cost so much, she was Campanelle for Ward’s stable. so dear at the auction, but she’s got a wonderful mind and we’re hoping Ward’s trusted agent also purchased today’s overwhelming Windsor for a really good showing here.” Castle Stakes (Listed, 5f) favourite Ruthin (Ribchester). Although he will saddle the two dominant five furlong winners and The filly is a 3-1 chance in the 28-runner field, with no other horse in acknowledging his all-conquering record at Ascot, Ward is acutely aware single figures in the betting. She became the Haunui Farm Stud shuttler’s of the step up in challenge a trip to Royal Ascot poses. first northern hemisphere winner - and a devastating one at that - when “I wouldn’t say that the competition that early is as stern as what we’re bolting in by six lengths on debut at Keeneland on April 22. going to face here at Ascot,” he said. “Ben McElroy, who is the agent that bought her, he gave her to me “A lot of these horses that are Royal Ascot worthy, they’re a little bit to train, and I’m very excited more forward and have a little bit more ability than those that they’re about her, I can tell you that,” running against early on.” SHE JUST LOOKS LIKE Ward said. Victory for Ruthin today would be the second time in succession a A ROCKET, A LITTLE Ribchester (Iffraaj), who southern hemisphere shuttler, prolific over the mile, will have sired the BIT SMALLER, BUT was dominant at the mile, winner of the Windsor Castle Stakes, following on from the triumph for SHE’S THE FAVOURITE winning at Group 1 level four Tactical, a son of Swettenham Stud’s Toronado (High Chaparral), who is RIGHT NOW IN THE times at the trip, at three and owned by The Queen. QUEEN MARY, AND four years, might not have ‘I would certainly love to come, but only come with a horse that had been pinpointed as a producer a sincere chance of winning’ SHE’S A FAVOURITE of early, dynamite speed, but Ward has never visited Australia, but that almost changed in FOR A REASON has seen his progeny get off to 2017 when he publicly made available his rousing sprinter Bound - WESLEY WARD a flying start on the track, with For Nowhere (The Factor) for the inaugural running of The Everest three winners who, along with (1200m). Continued on page 5>> Follow us @anz_news | 3 | Brought to you by Ward yearning for Everest berth with ‘right horse’ | 5 | Wednesday, June 16, 2021 << Continued from page 3 The trainer even put the colt into quarantine when the horse returned from a fourth-placed finish in the Commonwealth Cup (Gr 1, 6f) behind Caravaggio (Scat Daddy) at Royal Ascot, yet was overlooked by slot holders as Redzel (Snitzel) claimed the lion’s share of the $13 million purse. However, the acclaimed trainer has not given up on an aspiration to send a runner Down Under for the Randwick sprint, but only if he felt it had a chance of winning. And Ward, as recent history at Ascot has shown, is normally right on the money. “For the right horse I certainly would (contest The Everest). I just felt at the time that Bound For Nowhere was and we put him into quarantine at Coolmore with their stallions at Ashford there in Kentucky, but unfortunately he didn’t get an invite,” said Ward. I THINK A LITTLE BIT “I felt at that time he was OF HER SPEED IS the right age and at the top FROM HER FAMILY of his game and he was just AND I THINK A LITTLE beaten at Ascot, when he was BIT OF THAT SPEED IS fourth that day, but like I said, I don’t want to come unless I feel FROM ME I have a sincere chance. - WESLEY WARD “That horse is still running Bound For Nowhere PRESS ASSOCIATION great and he’s a tremendous Won 2,000 Guineas-Gr.1, by 2½ lengths beating subsequent King Of Change Advertise Gr.1 winner , triple Gr.1 winner etc. Won Futurity Trophy-Gr.1 (at 2), beating subsequent Gr.1-winning milers Phoenix of Spain and Circus Maximus “ A taking sort physically, robust and well-made, a bruiser of a colt” Timeform “ One of the easiest Guineas winners I've ever seen" Tom Segal, RACING POST Colm Santry, John Kennedy, Paddy Oman, Tom Moore, Rob Archibald or Emma Pugsley Tel: 02 6576 4200. New Zealand: Gordon Calder Tel:+64 218 41612. www.coolmore.com Follow us @anz_news | 5 | Brought to you by Ward yearning for Everest berth with ‘right horse’ | 6 | Wednesday, June 16, 2021 << Continued from page 5 sprinter.