WARD HAS EYES FOR A HOME TRACK STAND-ALONE TRIUMPH

HE is Gosford’s oldest trainer, has won Group 1s and has only one horse in work!

It might not be another at racing’s elite level, but still he has a special target in mind; winning a race at his home track’s Saturday stand-alone meeting next month.

Neil Ward, 78 years young (he’ll be 79 in August), says it would be very rewarding if he was able to do that with Stratafy, with whom he has won four races.

That fourth success came at Wyong yesterday when Stratafy ($2.30) lived up to her favoritism tag in the Provincial Benchmark 68 Handicap (1000m).

Ridden by Winona Costin, Stratafy raced outside the leader Bondasong ($4.80), took over in the straight and gamely held off a late challenge from Hawkesbury trainer Fabio Martino’s Spartus ($6.50).

Kembla Grange co-trainers Mitch Beer and George Carpenter had the third placegetter Harry The Thief ($9.60).

“I’ll see how her benchmark rating is treated (RacingNSW handicapping panel today raised it from 64 to 68), but there’s a 1000m Benchmark 78 Handicap (called the $200,000 Thunder Thousand) at our stand-alone meeting on May 9,” Ward said today.

“I feel that would suit her nicely.

“She loves her own dunghill, and only has to walk across the road from her stable to the track.

“As Stratafy is the only horse I have in work, it would be pretty special to win a race at the club’s biggest meeting of the year (featuring The Coast, Gosford Gold Cup and Takeover Target Stakes).”

“She is a big mare at nearly 17 hands, and is so tough.”

Ward booked Costin for yesterday’s winning ride because she had partnered the four-year-old daughter of Stratum Star only once previously, and he was happy with her even though she wasn’t first home.

That was Stratafy’s first city attempt when she ran sixth in a Benchmark 72 Handicap (1200m) at Rosehill Gardens in February last year.

“Statafy just can’t run 1200m, but Winona rode her well then as she did again yesterday,” Ward said.

Ward has been at Gosford for more than four decades after starting out training at Canterbury when he was 21 years of age.

He won two Group 1s in 1984 with Riverdale – the Epsom Handicap at Royal Randwick, and George Adams Handicap (now Cantala Stakes) at Flemington - and also the then Group 2 Warwick Stakes (now Group 1 Winx Stakes) – at Warwick Farm in 1986.

Whilst having a Group 1 runner nowadays is a thing of the past, it has been Ward’s association with Stratafy’s dam War Empress which has kept him in the industry.

He won four races (all at his home track) with the now 19-year-old Buriton mare, and Stratafy is the latest of her progeny to hit the track.

War Empress subsequently also foaled a filly by Supido named Madam Zoffa, and it goes without saying that she will enter Ward’s stable when the time is right. She is now a two-year-old in pre-training.

Ward was one of three provincial trainers successful at the Wyong meeting.

Newcastle’s Nathan Doyle made it three wins from five starts when Lightning Glory ($3.30 favorite), ridden by his in-form apprentice Shannen Llewellyn, convincingly took the CG&E Benchmark 64 Handicap (1200m).

Wyong’s Tracey Bartley won the opener, the 1600m Maiden Handicap with a three-year-old daughter of the Autumn Sun, Autumn Belle (Alysha Collett), who scored at $19.

Hawkesbury’s Steve O’Halloran and Kembla Grange’s Anthony Mountney had success at Canberra today.

O’Halloran won the Class 2 Handicap (1300m) with $6 chance Benamera (Quayde Krogh), who made it two from three this preparation.

Jean Van Overmeire had the mount on Mountney’s The Stars Align ($2.30 favorite), who made it two in a row in the Benchmark 55 Handicap (1600m).

STORY JOHN CURTIS, APRIL 17, 2026 - PICS BRADLEY PHOTOS