Royal Ascot countdown: Lady Aurelia "feeling some kind of good" says Wesley Ward

Wesley Ward jetted into England on Thursday morning and was swift to issue a positive bulletin about flying filly Lady Aurelia plus his four juvenile runners at the meeting.

Ward landed about 8am and went straight to see how his nine raiders had settled in at the yard of Pasul Cole in Oxfordshire before attending the racing at Newbury.

Lady Aurelia has been a star turn at the Royal Meeting for the past two years - cruising home in the King’s Stand last year year having zoomed to a seven-length win in the Queen Mary Stakes 12 months earlier.

She is a general 7-2 to win back-to-back renewals of the £500,000 five-furlong feature, one of three Group One races on Tuesday.

“They’ve all shipped in very very good, held their weight and eaten up everything,” Ward said to presenter Rishi Persad. “It all looks very positive.

“I ponied her (Lady Aurelia) myself and she was feeling some kind of good. She was bucking, kicking and jumping around - just want you want to see.

“She’ll need to be every bit as good as she ever was to get the job done again. From what I’ve seen today she’s travelled over well. She loves it here; thrives here and is doing great. I love it here, too.”

Battaash, the runaway Prix de l’Abbaye winner who gave weight and a beating to rivals in the Temple Stakes at Haydock on his return, is standing in her way.

Asked if he believed Lady Aurelia could defeat him and complete a famous hat-trick, he said. “We will see - it’s horse racing. She’s a bit older; he’s a gelding but it should be a great race and an unbelievable meeting.”

Ward’s two-year-olds have excelled for him at the meeting in recent years, although 12 months ago he had several short-priced challengers and all returned home beaten. This time he will have four runners is the juvenile contests and he believes they will put the record straight.

“All four have very big chances,” he said. “They have different physical attributes but mainly they are very fast.”

Six of Ward’s nine Royal Ascot winners have been two-year-olds and he has landed the Queen Mary three times with Jealous Again (2009), Acapulco (2015) and Lady Aurelia (2016). Last year his Happy Like A Fool finished runner-up.

This time around he will be represented by Chelsea Cloisters, an eight-length winner on her debut at Keeneland in April. She is no bigger than 9-4 to score under Frankie Dettori.

“It’s a race I’ve got lucky with a few times and she looks suited for that type of race,” Wards said. “It looks like being fast, firm ground, which will help me, so everything looks very positive.”

Earlier in the day, at Newmarket, Dettori revealed that the trainer gives him three words of advice before he rides for him. “Just hold on”.