Kentucky Derby hopeful: The Wine Steward is back in training
Two-time stakes winner The Wine Steward, who drifted to 77-1last weekend in the pari-mutuel Kentucky Derby Future Wager, returned to trainingthis month after getting two months off since he was scratched from theBreeders’ Cup Juvenile. When he will make his 2024 debut is not yet known.
“He’s back,” trainer Mike Maker said Friday at GulfstreamPark. “I just started training him a couple weeks ago.”
A close second Oct. 7 in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity, TheWine Steward attracted early betting interest in Derby futures in Nevada. His 60-1best odds last week were among the 20 shortest fixed-odds prices in themarket.
A 3-year-old colt sired by Vino Rosso, The Wine Stewardbegan his career with three wins in as many starts. He was six lengths clear ofthe field in his May 28 debut at Churchill Downs. He was a 2 3/4-length victorin the Bashford Manor on July 2 at Ellis Park. A head win over El Grande Ofollowed Aug. 27 in the Funny Cide at Saratoga.
In his first try racing two turns, The Wine Steward ranabout two lengths off the early pace at Keeneland before making a strong movein the stretch only to come up a half-length shy of odds-on favorite Locked inthe Breeders’ Futurity.
Without elaborating on the Breeders’ Cup scratch, Maker saidit was a scheduled break for The Wine Steward, and he said he did not have a nextrace in mind yet.
“Hopefully, we get something sometime in March,” he said.
Maker did not rule out a Derby bid for the colt, who has not had a timed workout since Oct. 28.
Peter Proscia’s Paradise Farms and David Staudacher own the$340,000 colt.
