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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