SID FERNANDO
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HROUGH the years he’s streamlined the mid-June assault on Ascot through a May stay at Chantilly in France, where he’s won several races as well; Ward’s specialty is fast horses, mostly precocious twoyear-olds, but also older sprinters. Many are offbred types, too, and this adds even more color to the improbable but cliched storyline of the “ugly American” dueling with European aristocrats. But Ward’s runners have looked plenty good as they’ve taken on Europe’s best on Europe’s terms: turf instead of dirt; undulating, straight tracks rather than fast left-handed bends; and no race-day Lasix. Racing successfully without Lasix is the significant byproduct of Ward’s European program. And it should have reverberations within the Lasix debate here. After all, isn’t Lasix the “performance enhancer,” as stated by The Jockey Club and other owner groups, supposed to make a horse morph into an animal that’s 15 to 20 lengths better than he would otherwise be? Or, to put it the opposite way: Isn’t Ward supposed to be at a competitive disadvantage by going off the ubiquitous diuretic that many here claim they are unable to train and race without? Which is it? Performance enhancer as Lasix’s detractors claim, or a therapeutic medication for exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH), as its supporters say? Ward’s most recent European foray came on July 12 at Newmarket in the Group 1 Darley July Cup with Denver Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker’s eponymously named Undrafted, a decent enough four-year-old gelding by Purim who’d won four of 14 starts Stateside. Not top class by any means, Undrafted had never raced without Lasix and was shipped to Newmarket for the Group 1 race with a Grade 3 turf sprint win to his credit. At long odds, he wasn’t given much chance yet closed strongly to finish fourth of 13 behind pro-tem champion European sprinter Slade Power, beaten only a length and a half, a short head, and a neck for everything. And all this first-time off Lasix, on a demanding good-to-soft course that tested stamina – the winner got six furlongs in 1:12.40 on a straight
88 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 33
The Lasix anomaly Ex-jockey and current trainer Wesley Ward, a cowboy, has established a niche program in North America that's as unique as it is unprecedented: He ships runners to Europe, targets mainly the prestigious five-day Royal Ascot meet, and consistently runs well. course – while under 132 pounds, 18 more than he’d carried to victory in his last start over a rock-hard Belmont turf in 1:07.24. By all indicators, therefore, it was the best performance of Undrafted’s career, yet it came without the aid of “performance-enhancing” Lasix. It’s hard to imagine he’d have run any better on Lasix, no? Ward’s European streak began in 2009 at Royal Ascot with a similar runner to Undrafted named Cannonball, a homebred for Ken and Sarah Ramsey. A four-year-old gelding by Catienus, Cannonball had made 15 lifetime starts on Lasix in North America before heading to Europe as a Grade 3-placed minor stakes winner. With even less form than Undrafted, he was sixth of 15 in the five-furlong Group 1 King’s Stand at Royal Ascot on June 16; wheeled back four days later in the Group 1 six-furlong Golden Jubilee, he was an improbable neck second of 14. Like Undrafted, the plebian-bred Cannonball had run the best two races of his career in Europe without the benefit of the “performance enhancer.” So exactly how powerful of an enhancer is Lasix?
“Like Undrafted, the plebian-bred Cannonball had run the best two races of his career in Europe without the benefit of the ‘performance enhancer’”
From 2009 to 2014, Ward won several stakes races in Europe with “off-Lasix” two-year-olds. In 2009, he won the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes opening day at Royal Ascot with 33-1 Strike the Tiger, a Tiger Ridge gelding who’d won his Churchill debut on Lasix. A day later, Ward struck with the Trippi filly Jealous Again in the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes. She’d won her debut and placed second in a Grade 3 on Lasix before Royal Ascot. Ward won his third race at Royal Ascot with No Nay Never, who in 2013 took the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes in juvenile course record time of 58.80. A son of Scat Daddy, No Nay Never won his debut and lone start at Keeneland with Lasix. He would go on after the Norfolk to win the Group 1 Darley Prix Morny in Deauville in August, the first European Group 1 win for a North American-trained runner since Fourstars Allstar’s Irish 2000 Guineas in 1991. This year, Ward won again at Royal Ascot with Hootenanny, a Quality Road colt. The winner of his Keeneland debut and stakesplaced at Pimlico on Lasix, Hootenanny won the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes off the drug. For these Ward runners, going off Lasix didn’t hinder their performances at all. Perhaps his two-year-olds were too young to be affected by EIPH and were significantly more precocious than their European counterparts? Easy enough to explain, especially as Ward is an early twoyear-old specialist. But what of the older horses like Undrafted and Cannonball? If they were bleeders, Ward did an expert job of managing them, no doubt, just as many other trainers have been able to finesse a race or two without Lasix when needed. But none of this suggests that Lasix is the “performance enhancer” that many call it, does it? n