Wesley Ward

Wesley Ward, the ex-jockey-turned trainer, stunned the British racing world at Royal Ascot when two horses he trained became the first American-trained runners to ever win at the exclusive race meet.

Ward, who especially has a knack for training 2-year-olds to win, is a former rider who won the Eclipse Award in 1984 as leading apprentice. He retired as a jockey in 1989 due to weight problems and joined the training ranks in 1991. Since training eight winners from 48 starters that year, Ward’s success has grown to where he had 94 wins from 361 starts in 2008 for a 26% strike rate, and stable earnings in excess of more than $2.2 million. This year, his horses are winning at a 30% clip.

In addition to his Royal Ascot winners – Strike the Tiger and Jealous Again – some of the top horses trained by Ward throughout his career have been Unfinished Symph, Men’s Exclusive, Bear Fan, Omega Code, and world record-holder One Hot Wish.

Ward, who was the subject of a featured cover story by Steve Haskin in July 18 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine, will be the special guest on bloodhorse.com’s Talkin’ Horses podcast scheduled for Tuesday, July 21. Questions will be taken until 5 p.m. Monday, July 20.