BALTIMORE – Witty, the slowest to start in the $150,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint Stakes on Saturday, came flying in the stretch to win by 3 1/4 lengths at Pimlico Race Course. Trainer Elizabeth Merryman, who celebrated her 61st birthday in the winner’s circle on Saturday, said that she plans to watch the race 10 times over with champagne as soon as she gets the chance.  “That’s him,” Merryman said. “He always comes from way off the pace. There was a ton of speed in the race, so I expected him to be way behind. You never know, it was a long ways back.”  Traveling five furlongs at Pimlico, the 6-year-old gelding seemed to lose any winning chance at the start when he steadied and ceded at least 11 1/2 lengths early on the backstretch. His saving grace was that two front-runners, 5-year-old gelding Honeyquist and 6-year-old horse Coppola, completed a blazing opening quarter-mile in 21.91 seconds. Even then, however, Flavien Prat didn’t think he had a chance at anything more than a finish in the money.  :: Access morning workout reports straight from the tracks and get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports “That race set up perfect,” Prat said. “They kind of ran away from me at first, then in the turn, he started making up a bit of ground. I thought maybe I’m gonna get a piece of it. Then, all of a sudden, I asked him for run and he took off.”  By the time the field hit the top of the stretch, 2-1 favorite Coppola had taken sole command over fading longshot Honeyquist with a pair of challengers closing in behind him. Determined Kingdom, who had closed from sixth with a bold bid on the turn, was a head in front of No Nay Hudson, the stalker biding his time on the rail. Witty was still well behind as the rest of the field turned for home and angled out in the stretch, at least two paths further than the rest of the field. By this point, he was still 4 1/2 lengths behind the leader.  Prat didn’t believe that there was a distinct advantage to being in the center of the track. He simply had the most horse left – by a lot. No Nay Hudson prevailed over Determined Kingdom by a neck for second, but neither horse came close to outkicking Witty, who seemed to be running his own race far outside of them and then just as far ahead of them. He completed the five-furlong distance in 59.61 seconds, running the final furlong in 12.36 seconds, nearly a second faster than any other horse in the field. He paid $7.80 to win.  Witty is a half-brother to Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Caravel, another Pennsylvania-bred runner who was bred and trained by Merryman and later sold to Sheikh Fahad’s Qatar Racing and Marc Detampel. The Sheikh bought a share in Witty on the evening of last year’s Preakness after the gelding finished second in this race. Detampel joined shortly after, further propelling a highly successful partnership for Merryman. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.