Ward Comes West With Snow Dance

John Ward hopes this visit to Hollywood Park is more rewarding than his last.

The trainer has brought Snow Dance west for the $500,000 Gamely Breeders’ Cup Handicap on Monday, only the second time he has shipped to this part of the country.

In 1997, Ward saw Beautiful Pleasure finish 10th at 7-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, although she went on to later success. In 1999, Beautiful Pleasure won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff en route to the Eclipse award as the nation’s top older female.

Best known for winning the 2001 Kentucky Derby with Monarchos, Ward, 56, has a longshot chance with Snow Dance in the 36th Gamely, which is a Grade I race.

Owned by John Oxley, Snow Dance, a 4-year-old gray daughter of Forest Wildcat, is used to being on the road. A winner of seven of 13 in her career, she has finished worse than third only once and has been especially productive on the turf.

She has won six of nine on the grass at four different tracks--Churchill Downs, Saratoga, Arlington Park and Gulfstream.

If Snow Dance, who was purchased for $220,000 as a yearling in 1999, is to make her trip from Lexington to Inglewood a complete success, she will have to defeat a quality group.

Among those running are defending champion Astra; Starine, who ended 2001 with a victory in the Matriarch at Hollywood Park; and Voodoo Dancer, a multiple graded-stakes winner for trainer Christophe Clement.

A winner of three of four at 1 1/8 miles, the Gamely distance, Snow Dance, who will be ridden by Craig Perret, could have a tactical advantage.

None of the prime contenders are front-runners, so she could find herself on the lead setting slow fractions. After that, it’s only a question of whether she is good enough.

One reason Ward decided on the Gamely was Snow Dance’s weight assignment. She was given 118 pounds, five less than she would have had to carry in the $125,000 Gallorette Handicap at Pimlico eight days ago.

Feeling his horses fit better on the deeper tracks back east, Ward has been reluctant to come to California in the past, but his mind-set could be changing.

“We could be doing more out there in the future,” he said. “We’re kind of testing the waters. We’ll put our toe in the water this weekend and see how it is.”

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Azeri provided even more evidence she is the best older dirt filly or mare in the country with a virtual--and easy--wire-to-wire victory in the $211,400 Milady Breeders’ Cup Handicap on Saturday at Hollywood Park.

The 3-5 favorite won her third Grade I in a row and has now won six of seven lifetime starts. Azeri--the 4-year-old Jade Hunter filly who is owned by the family of the late Allen Paulson, trained by Laura De Seroux and ridden by Mike Smith--won by 3 1/2 lengths and completed the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.

Affluent, the 5-2 second choice, was second, the third consecutive race in which she has finished behind Azeri, then came Collect Call, Elaine’s Angel and Ask Me No Secrets.

The Milady was marred by the fatal breakdown of 9-1 fourth choice Cashmina. The 4-year-old Cherokee Run filly went wrong down the backstretch and had to be euthanized after suffering multiple injuries to her right front leg.

Smith said of the winner, “She just galloped. She is amazing. Words can’t describe her. She’s done everything that’s been asked of her. She is just so special.”