Wesley Ward’s two-year-old filly Silvertoni is heading to Royal Ascot this summer after winning the Kentucky Juvenile at Churchill Downs on Thursday.
The record crowd of 39,213 saw Ward’s 6/1 shot fire to the front under impressive jockey Jose Valdivia Jr, who grabbed a winner at Ascot earlier this month on Create A Dream, and stay on strong to land the $100,000 prize ahead of favourite Hey Mike.
Two wins from two sees Silvertoni now primed for a trip to England this summer with either of two races at Royal Ascot set to be decided upon shortly.
Ward said Silvertoni would target either the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes on June 15th or the Group 3 Albany Stakes on June 17th, with an Ascot summer trip inevitable as the USA trainer looks to ship an impressive number of high-class horses to England.
"She's a really nice filly, very talented," Ward said of Silvertoni,
"I think she's going to get better as they go further.
“Going into the race, I thought [Con Te Partiro] probably would be a little quicker, but she broke a little slow, and [Silvertoni] kind of took advantage of that.
“[Con Te Partiro] came outside of her, but [Silvertoni] has a big, long, lengthy stride, and it's just tough to get by her."
Royal Ascot runs from 14th June - 18th June and tickets are still available here.