Ward Looks for Prix Morny Number Four With Outfielder

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There aren't many American trainers who win a two-year-old grass maiden at Churchill Downs and immediately think that the obvious next stop is the Group 1 Prix Morny at Deauville at the end of August. But Wesley Ward isn't like most American trainers.  For one thing, he's tried it four times. Won three. Finished second the other time.   He'll take his fifth tilt at the Morny on August 24 when he sends Outfielder (Speightstown) over to Deauville for just his second lifetime start.

Transcript

00:00There were two Colts at the 2024 Saratoga sale that trainer Wesley Ward thought he just had to have.

00:07He paid $850,000 for one of them, named him outfielder, and watched him win his debut in a TDN Rising Star-worthy performance.

00:16While most trainers might pick out a race at Saratoga for his second start, Ward thinks a little differently.

00:21Instead, he'll head to the August 24th Group 1 pre-Marnie at Deauville, where he has had a remarkable four starts, one second, and three wins.

00:31He's hoping outfielder could be number four.

00:34He went off a heavily favorite on that day.

00:37I had really, really high expectations.

00:39A little bit of the unknown was the surface, because he hadn't had any breezes on it.

00:43And he broke a little bit slow, and Johnny kind of niggled at him the first few strides out of there, and then off he went.

00:49Trying to come on late, but outfielder's already at the warning track.

00:53Look at this debut.

00:55Outfielder, coasted home, won it by seven on the...

00:59Everything that I really thought that that Colt was, that I'd seen in the morning, and what I'd seen as well when I bought him,

01:06he really pushed through and came through with, you know, it was like a revelation.

01:11So we were really excited for him.

01:13He's a really easygoing Colt to be around.

01:15Kind of cocky if you're around him, you know, like he knows he'd be like a young high school, college athlete that's heading to the pros.

01:23And I'm just excited for this horse.

01:24He's got a wonderful ownership group.

01:27Jason Wirth, you know, is a World Series winning outfielder, and that's how I picked his name, outfielder.

01:33And Kia, who's huge in the game now, he's come in with, spent lots and lots of money to have horses like this and to be a part of his group.

01:44This month we'll do a lot of easy half-mile breezes just to keep him sound, and then as we get closer to the race,

01:50we'll start kind of setting him down a little bit, probably get maybe a five-eighths or two as we get into August,

01:56setting him down with some pretty higher-quality Colts to where that we tighten the screws down a little bit,

02:01and he comes right into the race sound and fit and something that I've done in the past with the horses that I brought over there,

02:08sort of similar training schedule.

02:10He'll go about a week out from the race.

02:12He'll go right into my lucky stall at Deauville that we've been successful in.

02:16We've already asked for it.

02:17Looking really, really, really excited about this.

02:21It's a Group 1 race, and as I said, he's equally as talented on both surfaces.

02:27So to have, if he could win a Group 1 race, that will stamp him as a sire, possible sire,

02:33for his accolades that he'll hopefully keep going on to achieve,

02:35as well as if he goes over to the dirt, which we're real excited to get him there towards the fall of the year.

02:42You're always planning and hoping things come to fruition,

02:45but in horse racing, things can change in a minute.

02:48But right now, everything's really, really good, and we've got big dreams for him.

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