Vorticity forges to victory in $100,000 Marylander S.

Vorticity, a 2-year-old Distorted Humor colt, made his stakes debut in Saturday’s $100,000 Marylander S. at Laurel Park and responded with a gutty three-quarter length victory in just his third lifetime start.

Hustled from the gate under Victor Carrasco, Vorticity dueled with Tale of E Dubai through a quarter mile in :23.15 seconds, then dropped back on the turn, only to re-rally coming into the stretch. The dark bay colt forged to the front, holding off a hard-charging Never Gone South to get the seven furlongs in 1:24.63 on a fast main track.

“First time out we were using the race as an education,” trainer James Lawrence said. “I told (owner Matthew Schera) not to expect to win (his Oct. 10 debut, when he finished third). He’s good enough to win, but we wanted to see a good effort first time out. Then after that pretty sharp maiden race (Nov. 8 victory at Aqueduct) we started looking at a campaign.”

Bred in Kentucky by Upson Downs Farm and WinStar Farm, Vorticity is the first foal out of who was a three-time graded stakes winner of $832,892 Tar Heel Mom for Upson Downs. Vorticity sold for $220,000 to Schera at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale of 2-year-olds this May.

Distorted Humor, who will stand the 2016 season at WinStar for $100,000 live foal, is the sire of some 21 black type horses who have earned more than $7.3 million this year.