Trainer's confidence pays off as Wild Vine prevails in Parx Dirt Mile
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It was probably a lot easier for Jamie Ness to admit he was confident after Wild Vine stormed home to win the $300,000 Parx Dirt Mile Stakes on Saturday. But before the 9-1 shot entered the gate for the toughest start of his career, there were already several signs his trainer was feeling good.
The biggest hint originally appeared as little more than a blip on Sept. 3, when nominations closed for the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park and Wild Vine appeared on the list of 25 runners.
Trainers often nominate horses for races as a sort of exploratory exercise, often making the list of potential entrants meaningless, but Ness wasn’t fishing. Despite Wild Vine’s disappointing runner-up finish in the $75,000 Mayor’s Mile off a four-month layoff in August, the trainer saw the short field shaping up for the international superstar Forever Young and nearly came around on the idea.
“They were trying hard to get me to run in that race because it was a short field, and I just about did,” Ness said. “I don't know if I'd beat Forever Young, but I would have taken a shot at him. That's how confident I was feeling.”
If the Parx Dirt Mile was not run at his home track the following day, Wild Vine might have gone to New York and faced the Japanese titan. Instead, the Pennsylvania-bred stayed home and put on a show of his own against multiple graded-stakes-caliber rivals.
Jockey Yedsit Hazlewood, who has returned to the Mid-Atlantic for several big days since moving to Kentucky in July, sat in sixth aboard the 7-year-old gelding in the early going, but based on his move later in the race, he could have started anywhere.
The 84-1 longshot Movisitor set the pace in the early going, completing the opening quarter-mile in 23.83 seconds and half-mile in 46.73 before fading to last. It was anyone’s race behind him and several runners seemed poised to take advantage.
Bracket Buster, the 1-2 favorite who earned a 108 Beyer Speed Figure in the $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s last time out, was in the perfect stalking position until he wasn’t. The colt started advancing up the rail but had to stop and angle out when Movisitor backed into him.
Saudi Crown, the Brad Cox-trained winner of the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby in 2024, was even closer to the pacesetter on the far turn and easily took a short lead. Nelson Avenue, a 35-1 longshot trained by Jorge Abreu, wasn’t far behind.
This was the scene Wild Vine saw ahead of him when Hazlewood urged him forward for a massive move on the far turn. The view was fleeting and then far behind him, a small group of horses vying for a lead that was never going to be theirs for long. He ran around all of them like they were standing still and was ahead by six lengths at the top of the stretch.
When Bracket Buster eventually found running room under John Velazquez, he inevitably cut into the margin, as did the late-closing local runner Warp Nine. The race was over at the quarter-pole, however, as Wild Vine easily held on to win by two lengths. He completed the mile distance in 1:36.37 and paid $20.20 to win.
“I put him in good position and waited for the three-eighths pole,” Hazlewood said. “I used one move and I got the win.”
Bracket Buster was unfortunate but resilient for trainer Victoria Oliver, holding second by 1 1/2 lengths over the Harold Wyner-trained gelding Warp Nine.
When Wild Vine won the $100,000 Native Dancer by 6 1/2 lengths at Laurel Park in April, he seemed ready to take exactly the sort of next step he took at Parx on Saturday. Ness was frustrated when he suffered a setback and understanding when he failed to fire in the Mayor’s Mile off the layoff last month, but the Parx Dirt Mile was the time to deliver.
“He’s always been battling some feet issues,” Ness said. “So we had to back off him and try to fix those, and I pushed him in the last race, and I'm glad I did, because he got a lot out of it.”
Ness claimed Wild Vine for $55,000 in February 2025, when he finished fourth in an optional claiming race at Laurel. He has finished in the money in 12 straight starts since.
“He has the worst pedigree of probably any horse on the backside, [sired by] Red Vine out of an unraced mare,” Ness said. “Supposedly, he was a giveaway as a baby. Nobody wanted him. And we just picked him up at the claim box, hoping for a nice PA-bred, and he's really developed into a really nice horse.”
He probably would not have beaten Forever Young if he had gone to Belmont, but at the top of the stretch at his home track, it was difficult to imagine any horse taking down Wild Vine. He was bold and undeniable, a Pennsylvania-bred 7-year-old who showed he is emphatically far from done.
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