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Chad Brown, the four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer, will be making his Royal Ascot debut with stakes-winning filly Sweet Rebecca. The filly secured a victory at Aqueduct on April 28 and justified the odds-on favoritism by winning the $150,000 Memories of Silver over a mile under the guidance of leading rider Tyler Gaffalione, carrying the colors of John Stewart's Resolute Racing team.
Brown, who is also running the major fancy Sierra Leone in Saturday's Kentucky Derby, has set the G1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 21 as the filly's primary immediate target.
“It all worked out and I do think this filly might be my first Ascot starter,” said Brown, speaking to the NYRA media team.
“For right now, I’d say it’s likely her next start would be in the Coronation – she’s a serious filly and trains with a lot of power. She has a nice turn-of-foot, strong horse.”
Owner John Stewart, making such a big splash in the sales ring, purchased Sweet Rebecca shortly after a successful debut for former trainer Brendan Walsh.
“She is exactly what we look for,” Stewart said. “She lines up with our breeding program long term, and so we’re trying to pick off a lot of these really good running fillies that we think will be good in our program later and have fun with them while they’re racing, and then keep them out of the auctions.
It's no surprise that Wesley Ward, the American trainer who has become a favorite at Royal Ascot, is once again preparing his horses for the prestigious racing event. Ward recently won his seventh consecutive title at the Keeneland Spring Meet, with twelve wins overall. Among his standout horses is Fandom, who won the Palisades and is set to race in both the King Charles III Stakes and Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot. Ward's success continued with back-to-back wins on the closing day of the Keeneland Spring Meet with two-year-old winners Saturday Flirt and Burning Pine. Ward, who has trained twelve Royal Ascot winners, has nominated both horses for a possible trip to the UK.
Saturday Flirt, one of Ward's homebred horses, won a 5½-furlong turf maiden under Irad Ortiz and is expected to race in the G2 Queen Mary Stakes, a race her trainer has won four times in the past.
“She is just a beautiful filly,” said Ward (right), speaking to the BloodHorse. “From the onset when she was born here across the street from Keeneland, she was a standout.”
Odds-on favourite Burning Pine won a 4½-furlong maiden on the main dirt track for Gatewood Bell’s Hat Creek racing partnership.
“I’m sure Gatewood and his syndicate are looking to go to Ascot and for this filly,” Ward told the BloodHorse. “I would consider running her in the Albany, which is six furlongs. That is long for this time of the year but this filly could definitely do it.”