Wesley A. Ward

Birthdate: March 3, 1968

Birthplace: Selah, Wash.

Family: wife, Kimberly; children Riley, Jack and Denae

Ward, the son of Washington trainer Dennis Ward and grandson of New York outrider Jim Dailey, reached the 1,000-win plateau in September 2011.

Wesley Ward took out his trainer's license in 1991 after ending a successful career as a jockey in 1989, which included an Eclipse Award as outstanding apprentice in 1984.

Ward's first career stakes win and graded stakes win came with Unfinished Nymph in the 1994 Will Rogers Handicap.

Ward has earned a reputation as a master with 2-year-olds.

In 2009, Ward made history when on his first trip to England he became the first American trainer to win at Royal Ascot. Of the five 2-year-olds he shipped, two won: Windsor Castle Stakes winner Strike the Tiger, a gelding he bred and owned in partnership; and Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes winner Jealous Again, also owned in partnership. In 2013, he won the Norfolk Stakes with No Nay Never before shipping the 2-year-old colt back to Europe for the Prix Morny, a race he also won.

In 2014, Ward won at Royal Ascot with Hootenanny and finished second in another race with Sunset Glow. Hootenanny went on to win the 2014 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, one of the highlights of Ward's results at the event. He also won the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with Judy the Beauty, finished second in the Juvenile Turf with Pick of the Litter, second in the Juvenile Fillies Turf with Sunset Glow, and also finished second and third with No Nay Never and Undrafted in the Turf Sprint. Overall, Ward sent six horses to the Breeders' Cup with none of them finishing worse than third. Judy the Beauty was later named Eclipse champion female sprinter for 2014.

In 2019 and 2020, Ward picked up two more Breeders' Cup wins in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, scoring with Four Wheel Drive in 2019 and then Golden Pal in 2020. And a year later, Ward tallied his third consecutive win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (and fifth Breeders’ Cup win overall) as his charge Twilight Gleaming, who entered the race off of a runner-up finish and a win in Europe, led gate to wire at Del Mar on Nov. 5, 2021. Ward-trained Kaufymaker finished third in the race.

Ward added to his career Breeders' Cup success in 2026 when his Bacio won as the favorite in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint. The win was the second BC Turf Sprint score in Ward's career and capped off a tremendous campaign for Bacio, who began his season with a five-furlong Churchill Downs turf sprint win and then went to England for back-to-back stakes wins at Ascot and York. Bacio's season came full circle in the Breeders' Cup stamping Bacio as the world's best turf sprinter for 2026.

Ward kept up the momentum at the 2021 World Championships by taking the Turf Sprint on Nov. 6 with Golden Pal, the 2020 Juvenile Turf Sprint winner.