Gulfstream: Ward Seeks Royal Ascot Berth with 2YO Filly Satisfied Mind

By David Joseph —-

Gulfstream Photo
Ward Seeks Royal Ascot Berth with 2YO Filly Satisfied Mind

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Hat Creek Racing’s Satisfied Mind, a popular and decisive winner of her unveiling last month at Keeneland, steps into stakes company with a trip to England on the line in Saturday’s $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies at Gulfstream Park.

The Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies co-headlines a 10-race program with the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile, both scheduled for five furlongs on the grass. Each race winner earns an automatic berth in one of six juvenile stakes during the prestigious Royal Ascot meeting in June, plus a $25,000 travel stipend.

Trainer Wesley Ward has won more races at Royal Ascot than any American trainer, and he hopes Satisfied Mind proves to be his next. The bay daughter of First Samurai debuted with a front-running 3 ¼-length maiden special weight triumph going 4 ½ furlongs April 16 over Keeneland’s main track.

“She’s a talented filly. She won off only a few works. From what I saw from her I didn’t want to just keep breezing her because she was so quick I didn’t want to get a shin or something that would knock me out,” Ward said. “She kind of got a little sick prior to the race. What was impressive was that she did what she did off only four lifetime workouts.”

Satisfied Mind began breezing in late February on the all-weather surface at Turfway Park before moving to Keeneland, where she has worked once following her win, a half mile move in 49.80 seconds over a wet-fast track April 30.

“She should move forward for having had that race in not only fitness, but seasoning underneath her,” Ward said. “The day she ran it was kind of a really deep, dry, sandy track. It wasn’t like a rainy track where they can get through it and get over it really good, so that was something else that impressed me.”

Emisael Jaramillo will ride Satisfied Mind from Post 4 in an overflow field of 14 that includes also-eligibles Just a Little Bit and Divinely Inspired. Jaramillo will likely get the same instructions given to Hall of Famer Joel Rosario, aboard for her debut.

“She is ultra-quick. I told that to Joel going into the race that the first few jumps she’s lightning, lightning fast, so he had a hold of her. She would have shown a lot more speed than she did, even,” Ward said. “I would only assume with that start underneath her that she’ll be in front. As fast as she is, she will definitely be in front.”

Ward isn’t worried about moving to turf for the Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies. Satisfied Mind is one of only four horses in the race with a prior start, all of them on dirt.

“I always thought she was going to be a grass filly. This race was always in mind from the onset for her second start. Gatewood Bell, who owns Hat Creek, he buys these horses for me hoping to go to Royal Ascot,” Ward said. “That’d be great. There’s nothing like it.”

Ward became the first American trainer to win at Royal Ascot in 2009 and has a total of 12 wins at the meet, the most recent being the 2021 Commonwealth Cup (G2) with Campanelle. Much of his success there has come with 2-year-olds.

“Their training style from when I first started going until now leading into these juvenile races has completely changed. The Europeans, they would always want to take their horses back and make one big surge, and that’s one of the reasons I went over there,” Ward said. “They’ve kind of turned it around now. It’s tough to win these things over there, I’ll tell you that. When I got lucky right off the bat they said, ‘Well, we better not let that American boy get out there where we can’t catch him.’ They’re right on my heels now.”

Ward also has gelding Fuzzy Stare entered in the Royal Palm Juvenile.

“It should be a good race for both horses,” he said. “I’d say the filly should be shooting out of there and going, she’s extremely quick. [Fuzzy Stare], he can be a little tactical, I’d say.”

Trainer Patrick Biancone entered the pair of Lennilu and Emerald Ember. Amy Dunne, Caitlin Dunne and Brenda Miley’s Lennilu is also coming off a debut win at Keeneland, getting up over a sloppy and sealed track April 6 to win by a length going 4 ½ furlongs. The runner-up, Kadabra, came back to graduate May 3 at Aqueduct.

“She was working very well and I was very excited to take a shot over there because she was ready very early. We didn’t want to wait too much. We went there and she won very nice,” Biancone said. “We were very happy with her performance. The idea was to run there and if everything goes right we would follow the program.

“She’s a very talented and very fast filly,” he added. “She ran a very good race that day and she came back good. We learned that she’s a very good traveler, too, because she handled it very well. All was perfect.”

Luis Saez, up at Keeneland, is named to ride back from Post 6.

Biancone had yet to decide whether Dew Sweepers’ Emerald Ember would run. Also by multiple graded-stakes winning turf sprinter Leinster, she has three timed works at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County.

“She’s a promising filly,” he said. “It’s not a question of quality but she’s not the fastest out of the gate and I need to gate her one more time to see and to decide if she’s ready enough for that. This kind of race, you need a horse to really jump well.”

Other horses to have started are Repole Stable homebred Nonna’s Love, third in a 4 ½-furlong maiden special weight April 23 at Keeneland for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher; and MHM Stables and JWS Racing’s Bohemian, fifth behind runaway winner Mythical in a 4 ½-furlong spot April 17 at Gulfstream.

Completing the field are first-time starters Bibi Dahl, a $1.35 million daughter of 2015 Triple Crown champion American Pharoah trained by Jorge Delgado; Royal Testament, Strada Del Sogno, Authentic Guitar, Rumpus in Paradise, Kitty Cleo and Le Sunshine.

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