Bacio survives Ascot inquiry to give Wesley Ward long-awaited win

Bacio had the Royal Ascot finale won on the track, then had to survive the stewards’ room before the result was finally allowed to stand. Wesley Ward’s colt blasted to the front in the Palace of Holyroodhouse Handicap and never let go, but the celebration paused when Juan J. Hernandez initially weighed in light and a post-race inquiry threatened to wipe out what looked like a commanding American sprint score.

Once the missing piece turned up, the race remained with the horse who had made it look simple. The overgirth had fallen off during the run and was later found in the winner’s circle, clearing the way for Bacio’s 3 3/4-length victory over Sandal’s Song to stand. The 3-year-old colt covered the five furlongs in 58.36 seconds on good-to-firm ground, carrying 9-5 as the 3/1 favorite and beating 26 rivals in the 6:10 p.m. closing race on Royal Ascot’s Friday card.

For Ward, it was the kind of Ascot win that carries weight well beyond one race. He called it his first Royal Ascot winner since 2021, a gap that had stretched through some of the meeting’s most demanding international sprints. The victory restored him to the spotlight on one of Europe’s biggest stages and gave him a colt whose profile is rising fast after an earlier allowance optional claimer win at Churchill Downs in April.

Bacio’s record now reads like a horse still moving upward rather than one who caught a single hot day. He was bred by Borrowdale LLC, Torie Gladwell, Cincinnati Avenue Equine, Knollwood Farm and Valerie Dailey, and he is by Maclean’s Music out of Katie’s Kiss. His lifetime line stood at five starts, four wins and one second, with earnings of $246,161, a mark that fits the impression he left at Ascot, where he carried himself like more than a handicap sprinter.

Sandal’s Song, trained by George Weaver and ridden by James Doyle for Wathnan Racing, ran into a horse with too much early speed and too much control. The result also underlined one of Royal Ascot’s enduring truths: on the biggest stages, the finish line is not always the end. Sometimes a race is decided again, seconds later, when the weighing room and the stewards confirm that what happened on the track can survive everything that follows.