Wesley Ward was made to endure a nervous wait before celebrating a first Royal Ascot triumph since 2021 after surviving an objection from the clerk of the scales following the runaway success of Bacio in the Palace Of Holyroodhouse.
The American handler, who has 12 victories at the Royal meeting on his CV, was a significant absentee from last year’s meeting, however he was back amongst the winners after the son of Maclean’s Music blew away his rivals in the five furlong dash.
Once bursting out of the pack victory was never in doubt for the 3/1 favourite, who eventually sauntered home by three and three quarter lengths from fellow US raider Sandal’s Song.
However, the celebrations were put on hold after the stewards’ raised an objection after jockey Juan Hernandez weighed in light after losing a bit of tack as he posed for photos with connections.
But after the missing piece of equipment was found, officials were left satisfied and the result was left unchanged much to the delight of Ward and Bacio’s jubilant connections.
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The trainer said: “We were taking some pictures in here and when the horse jumped the overgirth fell off so when he weighed back in the overgirth didn’t go through the scales. They found the overgirth in the winner’s circle, and they put it back on, and it was then all good.
“I was wondering if he could go have a cheeseburger and weigh back in, but luckily all we needed was the overgirth that he carried.
“This is the greatest place in the world to win a horse race. There is nowhere like it. To finally get here again, after having so much success early on, hopefully we can keep coming over.
“Royal Ascot is all about the international competition and having other Americans here, and other people from all over the world, the Japanese, the Australians, and everyone else.
“It is great to finally win a race here again and hopefully we keep moving forward.”
And Ward, whose last victory at the meeting was with Campanelle in the Commonwealth Cup five years ago, gave a special mention to winning rider Juan Hernandez, who was celebrating his first winner at the Royal meeting.
“Juan is an incredible rider and he is very good from the gate. He is Bob Baffert’s number one rider in California and in sprints here over five furlongs I knew there would be none better, maybe as good, but none better than getting him out of the gate in a good position and ride him with confidence as he has won three thousand plus races and he did just that.
“He did that on Ruiva in the Queen Mary when he was third, and he has got another big chance in the Norfolk Stakes on Ez Tina, so hopefully we keep rolling through with the sunshine.”
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