Four Wheel Drive Back in Gear With Turfway Park Workout
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Four Wheel Drive trains at Santa Anita Park before the 2019 Breeders' Cup
Four Wheel Drive began early preparation Feb. 4 for what could lead to a trip to Royal Ascot by breezing a half-mile in :51 at Turfway Park over its synthetic Polytrack surface. The breeze was the first of the year for the unbeaten 3-year-old American Pharoah colt, who capped his 2-year-old season by winning the five-furlong Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2T) Nov. 1 at Santa Anita Park for trainer Wesley Ward and owner Breeze Easy.
Since that time, the colt has been resting and later went into light training at Keeneland, where Ward keeps a regular stable of runners. However, the trainer prefers to van his Keeneland horses to Turfway for winter works on their one-mile track rather than breeze them over the five-furlong synthetic training track at Keeneland.
"Man, it was just a beautiful sight—really, really nice," Ward said of the workout, which came in company with an unraced American Pharoah 3-year-old filly named Wish Way, who is out of Ward's grade 1-winning sprinter, Judy the Beauty.
The trainer is eyeing a return for Four Wheel Drive during the spring meet at Keeneland, where he likes to kick off the seasons and careers of his better horses. The opening-day $100,000 Palisades Turf Sprint April 2 for 3-year-olds at 5 1/2 furlongs is the target, after which the viability of Royal Ascot can be more extensively pondered.
Ward has proven adept at bringing American sprinters to Ascot and other locales in Europe, both with juveniles and older horses. Most famously, Lady Aurelia won a couple of group 1s overseas for him in 2016-17, including the King's Stand (G1) at Royal Ascot in June 2017.
Sprints will continue to be the focus for Four Wheel Drive, Ward said, just as they were last year at 2 when his longest race was the six-furlong Futurity Stakes (G3T) at Belmont Park. He also won the 5 1/2-furlong Rosie's Stakes at Colonial Downs.
"He looks like a little dragster. He's all speed," Ward said. "He's got a beautiful mind to him, which is what makes it nice."
Two stablemates that raced behind him in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, Kimari (fourth) and Cambria (ninth), are back in training with Ward at his southern division at Palm Meadows Training Center in South Florida, the latter after beginning her 3-year-old training with Ian Brennan at owner Barbara Banke's Stonestreet Training Center in Ocala.
Kimari will be pointed for the $100,000 TVG Limestone Turf Sprint at Keeneland for 3-year-old fillies April 10, also at 5 1/2 furlongs, Ward said. She narrowly missed winning at Royal Ascot last year, running second in the 25-horse Queen Mary Stakes (G2).
One Ward-trained filly who won't be running at Keeneland or elsewhere this year is grade 2 winner The Mackem Bullet, who has been retired and sent to Japan to become a broodmare for owner Katsumi Yoshida, the trainer said.