Ward Trio Works

- Minister’s Bid (Deputy Minister), who was fairly monstrous winning his debut for John Ward at Keeneland, has been working out on the Saratoga training track. He’s had at least three workouts that I recall getting alerts on, most recently five furlongs in 1:02.01 (2/12) this morning. The fastest at the distance was another Ward horse, Extreme Supreme (Deputy Minister) (1:01.81). He was up the track at 29-1 in January at Gulfstream, his only race. He’s by Deputy Minister out of stakes winner Low Tolerance (Proud Truth), and his third dam is the CCA Oaks winner Bramlea, which makes his second dam a half-sister to Roberto, dig it! You think he might try him on the turf?

And the third fastest work (1:02.15) was by none other than Dr. Pleasure (Thunder Gulch), who debuted with flair for Ward at Saratoga last year, and then ran second in the Cowdin. Then, he ran in the Juvenile in his third carrer start, and was up the track at 40-1. When I wrote earlier in the spring that I was surprised that the normally patient Ward was trying to rush Strong Contender to the Derby, I guess I’d forgotten about Dr. Pleasure. You may recall that he ran a distant third last month at April in his three-year old debut.