Ward targets Ascot outing

Trainer Wesley Ward is hopeful connections will sign off on his plan to send Lady Pauline to Ascot on May 1 for Trials Day.

Lady Pauline, ridden by John Velazquez, produced a stunning performance at Keeneland on Friday to win a Maiden Special Weight race by nearly 10 lengths from John Hancocks’s Two Dot.

The two-year-old filly is being aimed at the Queen Mary Stakes at the illustrious Royal Ascot meeting in June as she aims to emulate half-sister Lady Aurelia, who won the coveted race in 2016.

However, Ward has revealed he has put forward a proposal to the team to send his charge to the track in May to get a feel for the course.

‘Her half-sister did it and this filly has shown an affinity for turf too.

She did a beautiful breeze on turf in Florida and I think she’ll take to it like her half-sister,’ he was quoted as saying by the Racing Post.

‘I presented a plan to Barbara Banke, Ian Brennan, her pre-trainer who did a wonderful job before she came to me, John Moynihan and Lesley Howard – the whole team – that I’d love to come over to Britain for that five-furlong race we won a few years ago.

It’d be a really good second race for her.

‘That’s what I’m thinking but I have to get it approved from the team.

I’m sure we’ll have a discussion to see if we can make the arrangements, but Ollie Sangster, who has been with this filly from the time she came in, would go over and be with her for the race.’

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