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"We treat every horse like it’s a champion,"John Ward says. Here he visits with Dr. Pleasure, a top race horse and
the first foal of champion Beautiful Pleasure.
Keeneland race meet in 1936; his uncle, understand the science behind the tried horses were shipped, they’d let the workers
Sherill Ward, was the Hall of Fame trainer and true, old-fashioned ways of working go and their stables would sit idle for the
of the legendary gelding Forego; family with horses passed down by his family. rest ofthe year.
friend Woody Stevens, who was like an “When my grandfather and father would It was an older-style, inefHcient business
uncle to ]ohn, was another Hall of Fame say, {You do it this way because it works,’ I model that nettled the young Wards,
trainer of a record-setting Hve-straight Bel- always tried to Hgure out why this way whose accounting and economics back-
mont Stakes winners. ]ohn’s father, ]ohn T. worked,” he says. “What Donna and I try grounds had taught them the importance
Ward Sr., managed the family’s farm, rais- to do is put science and numbers to what of maximizing their assets. In the 1980s,
ing and breaking yearlings to send on to his worked and didn’t work.” with nothing to tie them down, the Wards
brother and Stevens for training. The couple also drew upon their mutual changed their business operation and focus
Donna’s family couldn’t Hgure out where backgrounds in showing and riding horses on training horses themselves.
her horse infatuation had come from. Her to establish their trademark training style, “We wanted something that was a year-
father, who worked for Murphy Oil, some- one that emphasizes an intimacy and un- round basis,” Donna says. “But,” she adds,
times joked that she must have been derstanding of each individual animal. For laughing, “maybe that wasn’t the smartest
dropped 0H as a baby on the steps. Her many years, Donna did the exercise riding decision. We used to take vacations and go
imagination was sparked by horses — her on the horses they trained. to Europe. Now we can’t do anything. We
favorite books were the Black Beauty and “We treat every horse like it’s a cham- work sun up to sun down.”
Black Stallion series — and her only aspi- pion,” ]ohn says. “Donna and I have ex- “ The University of Kentucky essentially
ration was to ride. treme backgrounds in riding hunters and made us change,” ]ohn adds, in a mock rue-
Donna and]ohn credit their UK advisors jumpers. Practicing horsemen ourselves, ful tone as he considers the up-at-5-a.m.,
with giving them Hexibility to take unortho- we’ve added another layer of being more seven-day-a-week, year-round schedule
dox course schedules that catered to their sensitive to the animal than probably our they follow. “UK taught us you have to
unique interests. Donna, a member of Alpha previous generations had.” have a more flat-line business model.”
Delta Pi, pursued a degree in accounting, ]ohn went to work with his father right The Wards are on a constant circuit with
while Htting in riding classes and electives like out of college, taking over the helm ofthe the Thoroughbred racing seasons. They
a 500-level Feeds and Feeding class, all while ]ohn T. Ward Stables in 1976 when his fa- spend the spring and fall in Kentucky at
managing her duties as Panhellenic president. ther passed away. After he and Donna mar- Keeneland and Churchill Downs, the win-
]ohn, a member of Delta Tau Delta fra- ried, they continued to condition and ter in Florida at Gulfstream, and the sum-
ternity received an agricultural economics break horses and then send them to other mer in New York at Saratoga. The couple
degree after taking a sampling of biology trainers. They worked for roughly half the lives while in Kentucky at their 200-acre
chemistry genetics, agriculture and eco- year, hiring lots of help and breaking per- Sugar Grove Farm in Paris, with its lov-
nomics classes that he felt could help him haps 100 horses in a season. Once those ingly restored 1808 farmhouse.
)) 18 Spring 2008