“He tried so hard,” trainer Wesley Ward said Saturday morning about Qatar Racing and Mrs. Fitri Hay’s Nakatomi, who scored a neck victory in Friday’s $400,000 Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix (G2) in his third start in the race.

With the victory, the 6-year-old earned a third start in the $2 million Cygames Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) on Nov. 1 at Del Mar. Nakatomi was third in the race in 2023 and sixth last year.

Nakatomi made his career debut in April 2021 at Keeneland, winning a maiden special weight race by 2¼ lengths. He has made 24 starts, winning here in the 2021 Bowman Mill Stakes. In April, the gelding was second in the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) Sponsored by Nakheel in the United Arab Emirates in April.

Ward was pleased with Friday’s performance, which came in Nakatomi’s seventh Keeneland start.

“As he’s getting older, you just want to keep him, hopefully, at the same level and that usually never happens,” Ward said. “Very, very few times do you get a horse like him that just keeps going on. 

“He’s like (20-year NFL quarterback) Brett Favre. He keeps going the older he gets,” Ward added. “We don’t run him very many times a year. I think that’s what keeps him excited when he comes over (for the race). He only has a few starts, so that’s contributing to him wanting to do it.”

When not at Ward’s Keeneland base, Nakatomi is turned out at Hunter Valley Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, where he receives special treatment.

“After the Breeders’ Cup, he’ll go to the farm and (manager) Fergus Galvin’s little girl rides him,” Ward said. “She gives him carrots and rides him bareback. When he gets over to the farm, he switches off. He’s like a pony.”

Ward said Nakatomi likely will ship to Del Mar a week before the race.