Wild Vine wraps up Native Dancer, eyes bigger game
Could be bound for Pimlico Special
Frank Vespe
April 4, 2026
Wild Vine made short work of his overmatched rivals in Saturday’s $100,000 Native Dancer Stakes at Laurel Park.
Now it might be on to the Pimlico Special.
“When the horse is doing good, you gotta take a shot,” Wild Vine’s trainer, Jamie Ness, said after the Native Dancer. “We’re local; sometimes, you gotta take shots.”
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No question it would be a shot. But the way he dominated his six rivals Saturday suggested he could be successful hunting bigger game. The Grade 3, $250,000 Pimlico Special – one of America’s historic fixtures – is slated for May 15 as part of the Black-Eyed Susan day card.
Wild Vine now owns 11 wins from 29 career starts, and the winner’s share boosted his bankroll past $460,000.
Ness’s Jagger Inc. and Mike Coombs’s Super C Racing claimed Wild Vine, a now-seven-year-old Pennsylvania-bred gelding by Red Vine, from a Feb. 2025 race for $55,000. Today’s win marked his fifth for the new connections.
Ness said early on, he and his team had been unsure of Wild Vine’s ability to run without the anti-bleeder medication Lasix. But with three prior stakes placings to his credit since the claim – including a third-place finish in the Kris Kringle, a race whose runner-up, Point Dume, has since won the General George and, today, the Grade 2 Carter – those questions had long since been put to rest.
But another challenge, Ness said, has been Wild Vine’s feet.
“He’s been a horse that’s got funny feet,” the trainer said. “He’s kind of club-footed in the front, so his kind of thing is his feet. That was an issue that we had that we kind of got under control.”
Under jockey Yedsit Hazlewood, Wild Vine found himself in the catbird seat early in the nine-furlong affair. The filly Late Nite Call, shipper Over and Ollie, and Pay Billy slugged it out up top, getting a half-mile in 48.01 seconds while separated by less than a length. Wild Vine, meanwhile, was just a couple of lengths off that trio and readying himself to pounce.
“I give that kid about two years [before he rides] the first Saturday in May,” Ness said of Hazlewood. “I really do.”
Approaching the three-eighths pole, Hazlewood steered Wild Vine a bit wider for clear running, and he went to the attack nearing the quarter-pole. The race was soon over.
Wild Vine’s winning margin was 6 ½ lengths, and running time for 1 1/8 miles was 1:51.42 over a fast main track.
Warp Nine rallied into second, and longshot Xcellent Start grabbed third. Pay Billy held fourth, while Raise Cain, Late Nite Call, and Over and Ollie rounded out the running order. Otello and Uncle Heavy scratched.
Wild Vine paid $4.40 to win as the 6-5 favorite, and the exacta returned $6.70 for a one-dollar wager.
NOTES The day’s two distaff stakes, the Heavenly Cause and the Primonetta, scratched down to three and four horses, respectively. Boutwell Time, with Angel Cruz up for trainer Juan Carlos Guerrero and owners Jeremy Sussman, Ten Strike Racing, and Cory Moelis Racing LLC, dominated the Heavenly Cause as the longest shot on the board, winning by four lengths in 1:38.37 for a one-turn mile… Even-money favorite Wondrous cruised to a 4 ¾-length win in the Primonetta with Cruz again in the irons, this time for trainer Brendan Walsh and owners Godolphin LLC…
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