Ward ‘ready to go’ with Bacio for Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint

Wesley Ward’s impressive Nunthorpe winner Bacio is in rude health ahead of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.

One of the American handler’s less-heralded Royal Ascot runners in the build-up to this year’s meeting, he made a mockery of his handicap mark in the Palace of Holyroodhouse to earn himself a shot at Group One glory in the Nunthorpe at York.

Only a three-year-old, he treated his rivals with disdain on the Knavesmire to provide Ward with a long-awaited first victory in the race – and the Keeneland-based trainer cannot wait to unleash him once more on home turf next week.

“We’ve been firing in a bunch of workouts and we’re ready to go,” Ward told the Press Association.

“When he came back (from York) we gave him a couple of weeks to get over the trip but he seemed really good. He’s been breezing along every week with the same guy who breezes all my horses, Julio Garcia, and everything is in good shape.

“It was a relief to finally win the Nunthorpe. It’s such a great race, it’s over 100 years old and we’d tried a few times and come close with no cigar – Frankie (Dettori) even thought he’d won it on Lady Aurelia!

“Bacio is a fiery little guy, but looking to the future we’re already looking at next year’s King Charles III (at Royal Ascot) so we want him at his best when he’s over there as you know how hard that race is. It was a number of years before I could win again there, you’ve got to take an extra special horse.”

Regarding why Bacio ran in a handicap at Royal Ascot this year, Ward explained that prior to that race, he had achieved very little on the racecourse, despite his homework suggesting he was out of the ordinary.

“He wasn’t proven when he went to Ascot this year, he wasn’t the horse we talk about today,” the trainer continued. “He was a talented horse but he hadn’t accomplished that much in the afternoons.

“He won on his debut at a B track under Frankie at Monmouth Park on the dirt, but we always thought he would be suited to the grass.

“We took him to Santa Anita for a Breeders’ Cup prep in a race called the Speakeasy and he ran a good race but he was second, beaten on the line, and that’s his only defeat. He hadn’t done enough to get in the Breeders’ Cup, so he then ran in an allowance race and he won easy.

“I thought then to stop with him and gear him towards next year. We brought him back this year in another allowance race but against older horses and he won. That was how he qualified for the Palace of Holyroodhouse, because he hadn’t really done much.

“People were asking why we ran him in a handicap and while his workouts were “wow”, he still hadn’t really done much in the afternoons. After he won at Ascot, that gave us the confidence to then head to the Nunthorpe.”