Report: Three Horses Perish in Wesley Ward Barn Fire
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Photo: Trevor Jones
Strike the Tiger wins the 2009 Windsor Castle Stakes at Ascot Racecourse
A barn fire caused by electrical storms in the Lexington, Ky area claimed the lives of three Wesley Ward horses March 6. According to a report from Horse Racing Nation, investigators from the Lexington Fire Department told the trainer that the fire began around 12:50 p.m. ET when lightning struck a service pole that led into the barn.
The three horses that were killed were Strike the Tiger, Ward's first Royal Ascot winner, 5-year-old Modesto, and an unraced 2-year-old Hootenanny gelding.
Strike the Tiger, a 15-year-old son of Tiger Ridge, was the pony that accompanied Ward's horses every year overseas for the Royal Ascot meet. The gelding scored in the 2009 Windsor Castle Stakes at Ascot for Ward as a 2-year-old. A stakes winner on U.S. soil as well in the Chenery Stakes at Colonial Downs, he placed in the Transylvania Stakes (G3T) as a 3-year-old and went on to earn $209,048 in his 30-start career.
The Uncle Mo ridgling Modesto, owned by Ramon Tallaj, broke his maiden at second asking last April at Keeneland. He has been unraced since that effort and has no recently recorded workouts. Modesto sold to Cromwell Bloodstock as a yearling for $240,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September Sale from the Mulholland Springs consignment.
News of the fire was first reported by Horse Racing Nation.