Baby Vino gets stunning win in the Haskell Stakes
28-1 longshot Baby Vino surprises a strong field to take down the Haskell Stakes after an inquiry and earns a spot in the Breeders' Cup Classic.
Video Transcript
We're ready to go.
And they're off in the Nyra Bets Haskell.
The Puma stumbled just a little bit coming out of there.
He's gonna drop to the back of the field.
Further Ado has speed, and so does the Preakness winner Napoleon Solo.
And Napoleon Solo's gonna go on with it here.
Further Ado, Iran Ortiz Jr., happy to track right behind the second leg of the Triple Crown winner.
It's Napoleon Solo on the lead.
He's cleared off, too.
He's comfortably clear.
Well off the rail here into the first turn round.
He's on top by two.
Star Sweeper second.
Further Ado kept outside, and he's level second around the clubhouse turn.
Then comes Iron Honor in the fourth position.
The local Baby Vino is next.
Ossele, the richest maiden ever, he's at the back of the pack with the Puma.
They'll have to pass them all and make up six lengths in three-quarters of a mile.
Onto the back stretch.
Napoleon Solo went at a slow pace.
24 seconds flat for a mile and an eighth on the wet surface here.
It's not that fast.
Napoleon Solo, a length and a tail ahead.
Further Ado, no excuses, right behind him tracking second.
Star Sweeper at 75 to 1 alongside.
Length and a half back to Baby Vino, making an early move on the rail.
Iron Honor patiently ridden fifth, and he's four or five off the lead going into the turn.
Ossele the Puma are next as they go into that turn.
Napoleon Solo still well off the rail.
He's the leader alike.
Baby Vino has made his way into second, and he's coming after Napoleon Solo around the turn.
And Further Ado is moving forward three wide.
He's lost a position.
He's right there.
The others really need to get going as they come to the top of the lane.
Napoleon Solo trying to seal it out.
The local Baby Vino 28 to 1, moving up on the inside.
Napoleon Solo, Baby Vino head-to-head on the inside.
It's Baby Vino.
Short lead, Napoleon Solo digging in.
Baby Vino neck in front.
Napoleon Solo trying to counterpunch, but it's Baby Vino coming to the line.
Jorge Vargas Jr. And Baby Vino have won the Haskell.
Baby Vino continues to improve.
He ran his best career race today, and he picked a great day to do it.
Napoleon Solo was second, and then a big space back to the minors, Further Ado, Iron Honor.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have an upset in the Haskell.
A huge eruption from the local crowd here.
The local favorite, Baby Vino, is your winner, Jerry.
You gotta give a lot of credit to jockey Jorge Vargas Jr., who rode this horse.
Paco Lopez on those, Napoleon Solo was in, like, the five path down the backside, probably way off the rail in the four path the final turn.
And so Vargas just took the rail.
The open w- it was open for him.
He took it without hesitation.
It's the shortest way home, and that was the difference of him w- hitting the wire first and not Napoleon Solo.
And we didn't You know, we're looking at the pan version, obviously, the pan shot as they say, the side angle.
But you could tell, there's the head-on shot.
They were tight.
Baby Vino on the inside, and Paco Lopez on Napoleon Solo trying to intimidate Baby Vino.
The inquiry sign has already been put up by the stewards.
Baby Vino being hit left-handed, if there's any contact, it's gonna be interesting.
Well, so far, watching this head-on, it's been 50/50.
Now- Yeah now Baby Vino gets a little bit, of, of probably the, the, the fault at, for a certain point, but I don't think there's enough here to do anything.
No, I don't either.
I really don't.
I don't either.
So there is an inquiry.
Yeah.
So they are looking at it right now.
I, I don't think you can conclusively say that anything there that we saw impacted the order of finish between the two.
I, I don't believe so, no.
Napoleon Solo had every chance to outgut Baby Vino, and Baby Vino just proved to be more determined in the run to the wire.
This is the local horse that won the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth by 10 and three-quarters lengths.
It was a Chad Brown horse that day that finished second, a pretty good horse by the name of Schoolyard Superman.
So it was a heck of a race by Baby Vino.
We just didn't know if he was this good.
Right.
Let's get it down to Andy.
Well, Baby Vino, tenacious in victory under Jorge Vargas Jr. Jorge, this is your first Haskell win.
What does this moment mean to you?
I mean, I can't even explain right now.
I, I come here every summer, you know, and we fight it out, fight it out.
This is the race, you know, I ride here.
You wanna win this race, at least once in your life.
And thanks to Lindsay, man, I, I, I, I can't believe it.
And there is an inquiry sign posted right now.
Could you explain exactly what happened?
Not really.
I mean, Paco got me tight, tight, tight, tight, tight, so, you know, I had to find my way a little bit, you know, to get my position.
Well, Jorge, congratulations, and we'll see you at the Breeders' Cup.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right, so thank you, Andy.
Yeah, still looking at it.
Yeah.
So Paco Lopez has obviously had a whole lot of careless riding, rough riding suspensions in his career.
Yes.
He's an aggressive rider.
He's gonna try to intimidate Baby Vino to his inside, and you can kinda see that playing out.
Well, it started on the far turn.
He's trying to carry Further Ado out farther in the track to kinda mess with him, 'cause that's the horse he feels he has to beat.
And as soon as Further Ado dropped off, he saw Baby Vino coming through on the rail.
So here comes Paco, heading down from about the four or five path down to the two path to squeeze, not, not squeeze, but intimidate, Baby Vino just a little bit.
And, and that's race riding, you know?
No, no foul there.
But when there was contact, I believe it was at least 50/50 and incidental at most.
And there is Paco right there on the phone with the stewards.
Which is- Common sometimes comical because- Yeah, it is they ask you what happened, of course you're gonna skew- your explanation in your favor.
So they've gotta- Yeah kinda filter through all that stuff.
It's kind of a ridiculous tr- tradition in horse racing, really.
Yeah.
All right, let's get it down to Matt.
All right, guys, and you can see Chad Summers chatting with Paco Lopez.
Paco was the rider aboard Napoleon Solo.
Chad, what did you see throughout the run here?
Do you think there's anything?
I mean, we'll see.
Look, the stewards will do their jobs over here.
I mean, obviously there was contact, you know, both horses trying to win a race.
We'll see what the stewards say.
Overall, as far as the performance itself is concerned, you've gotta be proud.
Look, he battled.
I, he walked on the track over here.
Walking over here, didn't really seem like he liked this track.
It's, it's pretty nasty out, but I mean, he battled.
They were clear third, but we gotta get better.
Good luck, Chad.
Thank you.
All right, Nick.
The trainer of Baby Vino, who's first past the post in, i- in the Haskell.
Lindsay, you said he didn't really want to be on camera until, until it was official.
I understand that, but at the moment, tell me how you're feeling, what you're thinking.
This amazing horse, he ran a huge race.
We've always believed in him, and they both, they rode good races, and the horses duked it out to the finish, so I'm excited.
A- and to do it in front of this home crowd as well, 40,000 people cheering for you in the rain, just tell me h- how much that makes it extra special.
It's awesome.
I mean, look, this horse, you could hear Baby Vino going up and down the grandstand, and that was pretty cool.
He has a great ownership group.
Um- No change.
You've won the Haskell.
Wow.
Amazing.
You happy, happy to be on camera now?
Perfect.
That's what we wanted.
Well, congratulations to the owners.
This horse has been, has been so great.
I'm so happy to do it here.
Who are the people that have got you here, Lindsay?
Look, right, right now it's, it's this horse, and Marcus Osborne and Josh Isner for coming in on him.
And Jorge Vargas ran a, rode a hell of a race.
Really excited about that.
You can celebrate now.
Go see your horse.
Well done.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
All right, guys.
