David Ward | Horse Racing Free Tips

Starman On Track For July Cup

Rising star sprinter Starman (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) is on course for the July 10 G1 July Cup, with trainer Ed Walker saying he expects ground conditions to be in the 4-year-old's favour. The David Ward homebred was forced to miss last weekend's G1 Diamond Jubilee S. after significant rain fell at Royal Ascot; that course is the scene of Starman's lone defeat, where he beat two home in last year's G1 British Champions Sprint S. over the soft ground. The lightly raced 4-year-old was the first-up winner of the G2 Duke Of York S. on May 12.

“He's on track for the July Cup. He's in good nick and he'll work on Wednesday,” said Walker. “I think we'll be all right with the ground. Newmarket was very quick last week and they tend not to get much of the rain. I'd be very surprised if it's any softer than it was when he won at York.

“We'd be seriously unlucky if we had to re-think again. It would be hard to re-think again as he hasn't got many options.”

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Ward’s Patience Rewarded With Star Quality

If you asked a trainer to design the perfect owner, he or she may well come up with something very close to David Ward. His horses would likely agree, too.

Ward had two runners as York's Dante meeting and they both returned to Ed Walker's stable victorious. The 4-year-old homebred Starman (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) won the G2 Duke of York Clipper Logistics S. on the opening day, followed 48 hours later by the listed success of Primo Bacio (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}). Both now head to Royal Ascot with Group 1 races as targets.

“If we'd come away with one winner we'd have been overjoyed but for it to happen twice with two runners was fabulous,” says Ward, who is of course looking forward to the Royal meeting but is equally happy experiencing everything that goes on behind the scenes with racehorses.

He continues, “It's an honour and a pleasure to have these horses. I enjoy them for the wonderful creatures they are. Whether they can run fast or not fast comes second. Of course we all want them to run fast, and it's great when they do and you have the success, but equally you have to be thankful just to be able to have them.”

It's important for anyone involved in racing to be able to take the lows with the highs. Often the former outweighs the latter. Ward, then, appears to have just the right level of equanimity to be able to cope with the sport's slings and arrows, though for now the champagne moments prevail.

On the Friday of Ascot, the 3-year-old filly Primo Bacio will be aimed at the Coronation S., having finished a good fourth in the G3 Fred Darling S. before capturing her black-type win.

“She has transformed herself since last year,” Ward says. “She was quite useful and she had showed good form but she has now just got used to racing. I think it's a mental thing as much as anything. It was something we hoped she would do and she delivered. Hopefully I can breed for her eventually–and hopefully with Starman. If he continues to do well this year it's highly likely he will go to stud somewhere and I'd be pleased to send a few mares to him. That's the ultimate dream, if I could get him to be a good stallion and then to see some of his progeny on the track.”

Starman may be a year older than Primo Bacio but he has had fewer starts and has been beaten only once in his five outings when down the field in very soft ground at Ascot on QIPCO British Champions Day. He is engaged in both the King's Stand S. and the Diamond Jubilee S., with a preference for the latter.

His breeder continues, “He's thickened out somewhat in the last year and I think he's more professional. He was a bit of a baby still last year. Tom Marquand rode him in his first race at Lingfield and he said he'd never ridden a horse who had whinnied for the first four furlongs of a race. He was green as grass but he just did it on talent. Then next time out at Doncaster on good to firm ground he broke the track record over six furlongs. That's quite an achievement for a second run.”

Ward adds, “Royal Ascot is the main target for the year as we hope the ground in June will be favourable for him. York was a bit soft for him but he got away with it. We're just hoping the rain keeps away for Ascot. Primo Bacio will also go straight to Ascot and hopefully the mile will suit her in the Coronation.”

This year sees Ward celebrate a decade as an owner, and his first equine purchase has certainly done all she can to fan the flames of his passion for the game, even posthumously.

“It's the usual story,” he says. “I used to go racing with my grandparents and father, and my father always fancied a horse but never got round to buying one. Then I did it about ten years ago now and the first horse I bought was the dam of Starman, Northern Star. She had three foals——Sunday Star, who was a stakes-placed filly, then Starman, and I also have a Kingman filly from her but the mare tragically died two weeks after she was born. So it's just the three of them.”

Northern Star's perfect record of two black-type performers to two runners will be maintained as her Kingman filly, now a 3-year-old known as Lodestar (GB), has taken up residence alongside Sunday Star (GB) (Kodiac {GB}) at Whatton Manor Stud, where Ward's six mares board.

“Sunday Star was due to go to Frankel this year but she had to have a cyst on an ovary removed so that scuppered this season,” he explains. “So I took the view with the Kingman filly, although she was really promising, I didn't want to take the chance that anything would go amiss so I retired her.”

They say two Eds are better than one, so perhaps three are better still. Ward was introduced to Ed Player of Whatton Manor Stud by his bloodstock agent Ed Sackville, who was responsible for buying Northern Star and Primo Bacio among others, and they work closely with Ward's principal trainer Ed Walker.

“At Christmas time we have a mock AGM in Lambourn and talk about the horses. They deserve a lot of credit. It's not just me rocking up as the owner, they put a lot of work into it and I'm very grateful for that as I'm not under the illusion that I'd know where I am without their help,” Ward says.

“The Players have done a fantastic job–Ed was the second person I called after Starman won because they foaled him and he grew up there.”

Among the sextet of mares at Whatton Manor in Nottinghamshire, some 50 miles from Ward's home in Derbyshire, is New Day Dawn (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}), a winner at three in Ward's colours who received a decent update when her half-sister's son Mohaather (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) won last year's G1 Sussex S.

“New Day Dawn delivered a Showcasing colt as her first foal this year and she is back in foal to him,” Ward notes.

Despite the growth of his broodmare band to six, and with Primo Bacio having earned her place among the herd in future, Ward says his aim is to remain an owner/breeder.

“I haven't sold any so far and I will resist that as long as I possibly can because I just breed for my own enjoyment and it's not a commercial activity really,” he admits.

“People have commented that Starman didn't run as a 2-year-old but we like to give our horses time and Ed is a very patient trainer. I think you reap the rewards from that rather than getting them out too early. That's my philosophy. I'd rather hold my breath with them and make sure that we feel comfortable when they are going to the track.”

In addition to Walker, Ward has horses in training with fellow Lambourn resident Brian O'Rourke, a new recruit to the training ranks who has been pre-training the owner's yearlings for some time, and with Tom Dascombe in Cheshire.

He says, “When you breed your own horses it's an emotional journey. It's like seeing your children in school competitions, and [the trainers] get that. I think the best time I've had is being in Lambourn when the stable is quiet and popping in and spending 15 minutes on my own with the horses. That's the best time of all really, even better than being on the track. They are such magnificent creatures and I just enjoy being with them. It's important to remind yourself just how fortunate you are to have them. That's what it means to me; it's not all about the racing.”

He adds, “I go in to see Starman and he's a very relaxed character. It's heavenly spending some time with him in the stable.”

Starman has so far lived up to a name that was never meant to be his but was inspired by a rock legend and bestowed upon the colt by a twist of fate.

Ward explains, “When Starman was a foal and Northern Star was in foal to Kingman and I was thinking of a name for next year. Being a David Bowie fan I thought Starman would be a good name for a horse by Kingman out of Northern Star, so I reserved the name and the very next day David Bowie died. Then when the foal arrived it was a filly so I couldn't use the name for her and I flicked it across to him, but it has proved pretty apt as it's turned out. It seemed meant to be that he should have this name and he has proved worthy of it.”

Reinforcing his mantra that there is much more to being a racehorse owner and breeder than just winning–or losing–races, Ward adds, “I spend hours thinking up names for them. I'm 60 this year and you don't get to dream about too much at this age but I love dreaming about the horses.”

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The Weekly Wrap: Coming Of Age

In February, the inevitable announcement came that Pivotal (GB) was to be pensioned at Cheveley Park Stud at the age of 28. David and Patricia Thompson's homebred son of Polar Falcon has been one of the great British breeding stories of the last few decades and the sturdy chestnut has been a great friend to small and major breeders alike through his magnificent stud innings.

As he continues his retirement, so does his legacy gain momentum. A few months before Pivotal was retired, his son Siyouni (Fr) had been crowned champion sire in his native France for the first time. The Aga Khan Studs stallion had only missed out on earning that title in the two previous seasons to Galileo (Ire) and Nathaniel (Ire), respectively the sires of the high-earning Arc winners Waldgeist (GB) and Enable (GB) in those two years. Then Siyouni got his own Arc winner, Sottsass (Fr), augmenting a profile which already had a properly classy look to it.

In each of the last four seasons, Siyouni has been responsible for a French Classic winner. His first-crop daughter Ervedya (Fr) had actually got the ball rolling in 2015, winning the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches for her and her sire's breeder the Aga Khan. A little gap ensued, but Le Brivido (Fr) was soon knocking on the door, and was only a short-head away from claiming the Poule d'Essai des Poulains two years later when being so narrowly beaten by Brametot (Ire).

Then came Laurens (Fr) to claim the Prix de Diane as one of her six Group 1 victories in France, Britain and Ireland, starting a Classic run which was continued by Sottsass in the Prix du Jockey Club of 2019, Dream And Do (Fr) in last year's Poule d'Essai des Pouliches before the 2020 European champion 2-year-old St Mark's Basilica (Fr) made good on his juvenile promise to land the Poulains for Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore team.

Of course Siyouni can't take all the credit here, as St Mark's Basilica's Group 3-winning dam Cabaret (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) has already shown herself to be a producer par excellence for Australian breeder Bob Scarborough via her son Magna Grecia (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), winner of the 2000 Guineas in 2019. This repeats the cross seen to good effect in Sottsass, who is out of arguably the most celebrated active broodmare in France, Starlet's Sister (Ire).

Doubling up on Danzig has done no harm in the case of Laurens and Dream And Do, while Siyouni's other top-level winner, the GI EP Taylor S. victrix Etoile (Fr), is out of a mare by Authorized (Ire) and is, like Laurens, inbred 4×4 to Danzig. A similar cross to this is found in the Siyouni 2-year-old Kaltham (Fr), a daughter of dual Arc winner Treve (Fr), who is by another Derby-winning son of Montjeu (Ire) in Motivator (GB).

Like Pivotal before him, Siyouni started out at stud standing for a relatively small fee of €7,000, which has gradually climbed to €140,000, making him the most expensive stallion in France, just as his own sire was in Britain when Pivotal's covering price climbed to £85,000 in 2007 and 2008. In both cases, lofty reputations look to be well earned.

Spanish Super Sub

For Basque-born jockey Ioritz Mendizabal, the Covid-19 pandemic has been both a blessing and a curse. Last July, when travel restrictions meant that neither David Egan nor Frankie Dettori could make the trip to Chantilly, he won his first Classic aboard Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}) in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club for Britain's champion trainer John Gosden.

Mendizabal's good season continued when he rode Audarya (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) to victory in the G1 Prix Jean Romanet for James Fanshawe, but he was then prevented from travelling to Keeneland to ride her in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf after testing positive for Covid. The now-suspended Pierre-Charles Boudot picked up the winning ride on Audarya in America, but fortune swung back in Mendizabal's favour when Ireland's champion Aidan O'Brien came calling on Friday for him to take the ride on St Mark's Basilica.

“Winning the Guineas is fantastic,” the jockey told Jour de Galop. “But you cannot know the emotion of even having your name in the same line in the race card as Aidan O'Brien. He is the best trainer in the world. I knew I was going to ride St Mark's Basilica on Friday at 2pm and it was extremely satisfying that Aidan O'Brien called on me.”

Wow Takes A Bow

In his short racing career, The Wow Signal (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}), an early star of the now-defunct Ascot Breeze-up Sale, went from winning an Ayr maiden to success in the G2 Coventry S. and G1 Darley Prix Morny, to finishing last in the G1 Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and then out.

His stud career was similarly short-lived. From covering 40 mares at Haras de Bouquetot in 2017 and 12 the following season, The Wow Signal's poor fertility meant that he had only 15 registered foals in France before he died from laminitis in the spring of 2018.

From a family which includes Shadwell's Poule d'Essai des Pouliches winner Ta Rib (Mr Prospector), The Wow Signal now has his own posthumous winner of that same race despite his seriously limited opportunities. Coeursamba (Fr) was bred by three members of the Mestrallet family, including Julie Mestrallet, who consigns at the French sales under the name of her Haras de l'Aumonerie. She owns only two broodmares, with the Quesnay-bred Marechale (Fr) (Anabaa), the dam of Coeursamba, being the first bought by Mestrallet from a claiming race in the French provinces.

When The Wow Signal won the Coventry he was following something of a Royal Ascot tradition for his sireline. His sire Starspangledbanner won the G1 Golden Jubilee S. on his second start for Aidan O'Brien after moving from the Australian stable of Leon Corstens, and in turn his father Choisir (Aus) had been the poster boy that opened the floodgates for Australian sprinters heading to the Royal meeting, having won both the King's Stand and the Golden Jubilee back in 2003.

Starspangledbanner was also famously subfertile in his early years at stud but a combination of patience and good management has seen him continue his stallion career while remaining popular with commercial breeders.

He too was represented among the stakes winners over the weekend when the Fozzy Stack-trained juvenile Hermana Estrella (Ire) landed the G3 Coolmore Stud Irish EBF Fillies' Sprint S. on debut, with the horses in behind her including favourite Contarelli Chapel (Ire) (Caravaggio), who had earned a TDN Rising Star for her own impressive debut success three weeks earlier.

Bred by Mark and Aisling Gittins at Castlefarm Stud from The Last Sister (Ire), a daughter of the Gittins family's G1 Prix Jean Prat winner Lord Shanakill, Hermana Estrella had been sold as a foal for just 2,500gns. She transpired to be a profitable pinhook for Timmy Hillman of Castledillon Stud, who resold her as a yearling for £42,000 to her trainer and Hubie de Burgh at last year's relocated Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale.

The family has worked well with that sireline in the past as The Last Sister's half-sister Lady Springbank (Ire) is a dual Group 3-winning daughter of Choisir. Hermana Estrella may now be given her own chance at Royal Ascot in the G3 Albany S.

Snowfall On The Knavesmire

We usually expect to see something special at York in the spring and indeed both formal Classic trials threw up decent winners. Galileo was the broodmare sire of yet another European Classic winner at ParisLongchamp on Sunday and he could yet chalk up further success in this realm in the coming weeks with Snowfall (Jpn), who was highly impressive in winning the G3 Tattersalls Musidora S. Like Saxon Warrior (Jpn) before her, she is bred on the Deep Impact (Jpn)-Galileo cross. Her mother fell somewhat short of her lofty name of Best In The World (Ire), and in fact she herself finished last in the Musidora in 2016. She did, however, later collect the G3 Give Thanks S. As a full-sister to Arc winner Found (Ire) and a daughter of Group 1 winner Red Evie (Ire) (Intikhab), Best In The World of course had plenty to recommend her, and her first foal is now second-favourite behind stablemate Santa Barbara (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) for the Cazoo Oaks.

The Dante meeting also proved to be a highly successful one for trainer Ed Walker, who has a crack sprinter on his hands in Starman (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}). The 4-year-old is still lightly raced and has been beaten just once in his five starts for owner/breeder David Ward, who bought his dam Northern Star (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale for €50,000 through Ed Sackville. She won just once but has already produced two stakes performers with her first two foals. Sadly, the mare died after producing a Kingman (GB) filly, named Lodestar (GB), in 2018.

Northern Star's first foal, Sunday Star (GB) (Kodiac {GB}), is a dual winner with multiple stakes placings, including finishing third in the G3 Summer Fillies' S. at York last season. Starman is smarter still and now has two Group 1 sprint entries at Royal Ascot.

Sackville also did Ward a favour when selecting Primo Bacio (Ire) at Tattersalls October Book 1 two years ago from her breeder Kildaragh Stud. A winner last December on her fourth start for Walker, the daughter of Awtaad (Ire) has taken major strides forward in her 3-year-old season and, following a first-up fourth in the G3 Fred Darling S., she now has bold black type thanks to her three-length win in the Oaks Farm Stables Fillies' S., which is run in memory of the late racing journalist Michael Seely.

Primo Bacio's victory not only completed a double for Walker and Ward, but also initiated a stakes double last week for her Derrinstown Stud-based sire Awtaad. Both she and the Sir Edmund Loder homebred Bellosa (Ire), who won the listed Betway King Charles S. at Newmarket on Saturday, are members of the Irish 2000 Guineas winner's first crop, as is last season's Leopardstown winner Ebeko (Ire). The latter was subsequently exported to California, where she won the listed Zuma Beach S. for trainer Peter Miller.

Rising Stars Of The Stud Ranks

There has been plenty of activity in the European first-season sires' table over the last week. Overbury Stud's Ardad (Ire) doubled his tally of winners to eight, with Beautiful Sunshine (GB) and Superior Force (GB) among those to have added to the impressive run for the partnership of trainer George Boughey with Amo Racing and breeze-up consignor/pre-trainer Robson Aguiar.

The National Stud duo of Aclaim (Ire) and Time Test (GB) both got off the mark on Saturday, with Aclaim's first winner, Cachet (Ire), another breeze-up graduate trained by Boughey, being awarded a TDN Rising Star for her Rowley Mile debut.

Galileo Gold's first winner, Ebro River (Ire), struck at Doncaster on Saturday and, appropriately, the colt is trained by Galileo Gold's former trainer Hugo Palmer in the colours of his former owner Al Shaqab Racing, and was bred by Tally-Ho Stud, where the 2000 Guineas winner now stands.

Ribchester (Ire) was another freshman to be represented by a TDN Rising Star in the last week in the form of Gisburn (Ire), the facile winner of a Newbury maiden on Friday for Richard Hannon and owners Michael Kerr-Dineen and Martin Hughes. He is likely to head next to the Coventry S.

Meanwhile at the head of the table presently on progeny earnings is Ribchester's fellow Darley sire Profitable (Ire). His four winners include the Gavin Cromwell-trained Quick Suzy (Ire), who was runner-up to the aforementioned Hermana Estrella in the Group 3 at Naas on Sunday. Events at Royal Ascot will surely bring further clues as to the prowess of the latest crop of young stallions.

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