Wild Vine blossoms in Native Dancer
LAUREL, MD—“6 to 5! What a joke,” scoffed one know-it-all Laurel Park railbird as the horses circled the starting gate before Saturday’s $100,000 Frank Y. Whiteley Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at seven furlongs.
In the winner’s circle, one turf writer said to another scribe, “What a black cat. Now, he’ll win by ten.”
The bettor’s vitriol was aimed at Quint’s Brew, the reliable, likable, and hardworking 5-year-old gelding, who had never finished outside the money in 11 previous races.
If the railbird disliked 6 to 5, he would be surprised by Quint’s Brew’s final odds. Sent off at 2 to 5 with jockey Forest Boyce, Quint’s Brew stayed close to his rival Blue Kingdom during an easy first quarter in 24.05 seconds, then sprinted away from that opponent through a half-mile in 46.86 seconds, and crossed the wire under his own power in 1:23.19 on the fast main track.
The turf writer was also wrong. Quint’s Brew only won by 5 ¾ lengths over a late-surging Crab Daddy.
Blue Kingdom finished third, a neck behind. Worcester and Bold Diversion completed the order.
Quint’s Brew paid $2.80 to win. Counterspy and Point Dume scratched, with the latter having won the Grade 2 Carter at Aqueduct earlier in the day.
Quint’s Brew finished second in the 2024 Carter, just half a length behind Crazy Mason.
After a close second in the Grade 3 Westchester Stakes at Aqueduct, trainer Ned Allard decided to give his top horse a lengthy rest.
“After his last two races in New York, we had a minor issue, but we decided to give him some time off because he had been running really hard,” Allard said before Quint’s Brew’s return to the races, the restricted Howard and Sondra Bender Memorial Stakes on December 20.
“He’s a really nice horse.”
That he is.
Quint’s Brew finished second in the Howard and Sondra Bender Memorial, then won the restricted Jennings Stakes four weeks later.
After finishing third in the listed General George Stakes, Allard realized something very important.
“He’s a horse that you need to be a little patient with,” Allard explained before Quint’s Brew went off as the odds-on favorite in last month’s restricted Not For Love Stakes. “He doesn’t like being spanked on his rear end with the whip. You can tap him on his neck, you can encourage him a little, but he’s one of the horses that is giving you everything he’s got. When you reach back and get him behind, he always ducks out a little bit; he changes his lead. It throws him off.”
Allard assigned Forest Boyce to ride Quint’s Brew in the Not For Love, and she followed instructions perfectly. Despite being challenged by Blue Kingdom in a lively stretch battle, Boyce never pulled the whip, and Quint’s Brew responded by gamely winning by a neck.
The instructions stayed the same this afternoon, but Boyce never felt tempted to go to the stick. That’s how powerful Quint’s Brew felt beneath her.
“It was like I had a ton of horse from the jump,” Boyce said. “I was shocked. He’s a lovely horse. I had horse last time, but not like I had today. He was loaded for bear today.”
Allard was truly impressed.
“He really has come around,” Allard said. “He was awesome today. I think Forest fits him to a T. She didn’t even have to touch him today. It was one of his better races, I thought. He got tested a little bit early, and just drew off and won very easily. He’s a push-button horse.”
Bred in Maryland by Paul Berube, Karen Linnell, and Spinnaker Hill Farm, Quint’s Brew is a 5-year-old Mosler full brother to stakes-placed turf router Touisset. Campaigned by Berube, Linnell, and Heather Hunter, Quint’s Brew has won seven of 12 starts and earned $561,240.
The Frank Y. Whiteley honors the Centreville, Maryland native, best known for training Ruffian, one of the greatest fillies of all time, as well as other legends like Damascus, Forego, and the 1965 Preakness winner, Tom Rolfe. Whiteley was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame alongside Ruffian and Damascus in 1978. He retired in 1984 after a career spanning six decades and passed away in Camden, South Carolina, in 2008 at age 93.
*Wild Vine blossoms in Native Dancer
“I think you’ll see that kid in two years on the first Saturday in May,” trainer Jamie Ness said about jockey Yedsit Hazlewood after the teen phenom guided Wild Vine to an open-lengths victory in the $100,000 Native Dancer Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles.
“He’s oozing with talent,” Ness continued. “I’ve never seen a kid that talented at that age.”
Hazlewood guided Wild Vine flawlessly in the Native Dancer, and the seasoned Pennsylvania-bred appeared to be a winner every step of the way.
In fact, the only nervous moments Ness had were before the race.
“They called me from the barn when they were getting him ready, and he flung his shoe,” said Ness, who led the nation in wins last year. “Luckily, we had a good paddock guy here, and he did a good job putting the shoe on.”
The pace was rapid in the Native Dancer, as Late Nite Call and Over and Ollie raced through the first quarter in 23.77 seconds. Pay Billy moved up with a three-wide surge after a half-mile in 48.01 seconds, but Hazlewood had Wild Vine cruising behind that trio.
Pay Billy briefly took the lead, but Wild Vine was right behind him, and Hazlewood’s mount comfortably moved to the front after six furlongs in 1:13.23. From then on, it was all Wild Vine, who pulled away in the stretch to win by 6 ½ lengths in 1:51.42.
Warp Nine finished second, three-quarters of a length ahead of Xcellent Start. Pay Billy, Raise Cain, Late Nite Call, and Over and Ollie followed. Otello and Uncle Heavy scratched.
After the race, Wild Vine looked like a happy, if incomplete, animal. During the race, he lost his other hind shoe.
“I followed the instructions,” Hazlewood said. “He said [to break well]. At the three-eighths pole, I [went outside] and made a big move. He’s a good horse.”
Ness claimed Wild Vine on behalf of his Jagger Inc. operation, in partnership with Super C Racing, for $55,000 last year. The Pennsylvania-bred gelding has run ten times for Ness, never finishing outside the top three, placing in three stakes, and winning his last two starts.
“He’s just been a top-notch, consistent horse,” Ness said earlier in the week. “He never throws a bad one.”
Starting from modest beginnings, Wild Vine has become a stakes winner despite ongoing foot issues that Ness has had to manage.
“I got this horse for nothing,” former trainer Flint Stites said in the Laurel Park winner’s circle after Wild Vine won a high-level allowance race on January 26, 2025, two starts before being claimed by Ness. “I had a friend of mine set me up with this horse when he was a yearling. 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.”
Bred by R R Equine Stables, Wild Vine is a 7-year-old sired by Red Vine out of Praslin, who is by Even the Score.
He has won 11 of 29 races and earned $462,490.
Ness mentioned the Grade 3, $250,000 Pimlico Special at Laurel Park on May 15 as a potential next race for Wild Vine.
“Sometimes, you’ve got to take a shot,” Ness said. “We’re local; sometimes you’ve got to take shots.”
