Worcester wins second straight

LAUREL, MD – Talk about your rags-to-riches story!

“I got this horse for nothing,” trainer Flint Stites said in the Laurel Park winner’s circle after Wild Vine prompted and pounced his way to a $34.60 score in Sunday’s featured ninth race, a conditioned allowance with a $55,000 claiming option at 1 1/16 miles.

“I had a friend of mine set me up with this horse when he was a yearling,” Stites continued. “He was turned out in a field in Kentucky and was still on his mother with another mare. He had never been touched by human hands.”

Stites has the magic touch regarding Wild Vine, who pushed his lifetime earnings to $187,870 after besting stakes-placed Cataleya Strike by 1 ¼ lengths in 1:46.33 over the fast track.

“He was really small when I got him,” Stites said. “We gave him plenty of time to grow.”

The 6-year-old gelding has grown like, well, a wild vine. He weighed in at 1,202 lbs. before his final start of 2024, a sixth-place finish in the Robert T. Manfuso Stakes at Laurel on Dec. 21.

“I took him off of Lasix that last race, for that stake, and that didn’t set well with him,” Stites mentioned. “He’s back again, and he’s been feeling really good.”

Jockey Jomar Torres utilized Wild Vine’s natural speed to sit second going into the first turn, two lengths behind pacesetting Bouncer, who set rated fractions of 25.30 and 49.58.

Torres dropped his hands on the second bend, and Wild Vine responded, bounding past Bouncer, opening up a clear advantage, and holding the closers at bay.

Bred in Pennsylvania by R R Equine Stables, Wild Vine campaigns for Stites’s Short Straw Stable. He has won 6 of 17 starts and earned a stakes-placing at Penn National on Nov. 27, when he was second in the restricted Chocolate Town.

Worcester wins second straight

Grade 3-placed Worcester notched his second consecutive victory with a good-looking, last-to-first score under Sheldon Russell in the eighth race, a conditioned allowance with a $40,000 claiming option at seven furlongs.

Trained by Brittany Russell, Worcester dropped back to last in the opening furlong, advanced into strong contention along the rail on the turn, angled four wide into the stretch, and then drove by the competition in the final eighth of a mile.

The 5-year-old son of Empire Maker completed the distance in 1:24.56 while two lengths better than 18-1 shot Sheriff Ronnie and returned $3.40 to win as the prohibitive favorite. Grade 3-placed Radical Right finished another 1 ¾ lengths behind in third.

A $180,000 yearling purchase, Worcester began his career in Southern California with trainer Bob Baffert and finished third in the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes in his third start while still a maiden.

Worcester finally earned that elusive first victory in his eighth start, then went to the sidelines for over one year before resurfacing in Maryland with Russell.

In his first start for the new barn, he ran a good second in a six-furlong allowance race before moving through that condition with a 2 ½-length victory at seven-eighths on Dec. 27.

Bred in Kentucky by the Jerry Dixon Revocable Trust and Empire Maker Syndicate, Worcester is owned by a large partnership group that includes SF Racing, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stables.