Longshot Baby Vino makes Schultz first female trainer to win Haskell
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Lindsay Schultz, a trainer based at Monmouth Park since 2022, said she has long thought about having the sort of horse who could win the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes. Her ambitions were abstract for a long time, roughly matching the sentiments any trainer would share. Everyone wants to win the big one.
But in less than three months, Baby Vino gave his trainer’s dreams a defined edge, and on a rain-battered track Saturday, the 3-year-old colt completed his transformation from maiden to Grade 1 winner, showing immense courage to pull off a 28-1 shocker over Napoleon Solo in the $1 million race.
“It's huge for our stable,” Schultz said. “It’s a really big deal. It’s so great for this horse. From the moment he started working, we just loved this horse, and to really show what he has is what we do it for.”
The circumstances surrounding the longshot created a perfect storm of firsts, fitting for a day at Monmouth that included two weather delays and three separate barrages of rain.
Schultz became the first woman to win the Haskell, continuing a theme for the 2026 season that began when Cherie DeVaux became the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby and second to win the Belmont Stakes. Schultz also had never entered a horse in a Grade 1 race, scoring on her first attempt. Jockey Jorge Vargas Jr. had never ridden the colt before and also earned his first Grade 1 victory.
Four months ago, none of it could have been conceivable. Schultz said firmer hopes for the Haskell first began to creep in when Baby Vino earned his maiden victory on May 1 at Oaklawn Park. It might have taken him five tries in Arkansas, but the trainer had been waiting for that 3 3/4-length score. Most of the nation’s top trainers were still preparing their best 3-year-olds for the Kentucky Derby. Schultz was preparing to come home.
“I have [thought about winning the Haskell before], and I certainly thought about it a lot more when this horse broke his maiden,” Schultz said. “You think about where you're going down the line, what you could do. So [the Haskell] was definitely on our minds at that point.”
After that belated first score, Schultz immediately thought to enter him in the $125,000 Pegasus at Monmouth, which serves as the local prep for the Haskell.
The trainer said she would only take a shot at the big one if the Vino Rosso colt won the Pegasus the right way. She couldn’t have asked for much more when he kicked clear to win his stakes debut by 10 3/4 lengths with a respectable 87 Beyer Figure.
His next step was a bounding one, and the public still wasn’t convinced. Baby Vino went off as the second longest shot in the Haskell field of seven 3-year-olds on Saturday, far out of the picture among the likes of Kentucky Derby contender Further Ado or the Preakness winner Napoleon Solo.
He was the local hope, a moniker so often given to plucky also-rans. Schultz had never entered a horse in a Grade 1 race, and Paco Lopez, who rode him to his dominant victory in the Pegasus, took the mount on Napoleon Solo in the Haskell instead. Vargas took the mount for the first time in the biggest race of the colt’s career.
Vargas, unsure of what to expect aboard the outsider, seemed set on following his colt to the very end. Other jockeys in the Haskell seemed to avoid the rail on the sloppy track, but the longshot took the gamble with a ground-saving bid from fifth.
“He was dragging me,” Vargas said. “He was dragging me the whole backside behind [longshot Star Sweeper] in a tough spot, because I knew he was going to back down any second. He was dragging me, and I said, ‘It’s the only shot I’ve got.’”
Lopez made the most pronounced decision concerning the rail aboard Napoleon Solo. The Chad Summers-trained pacesetter was forced wide into the first turn while setting the early pace and stayed off the rail on the backstretch, kicking clear through an opening quarter-mile in 24.15 seconds and half-mile in 48.29.
Further Ado, the even-money favorite who broke from post 2 for Brad Cox, stalked even farther outside while trying to circle the front-runner, but he was spinning his wheels by the time the field reached the far turn. Iron Honor, the Preakness runner-up, also stayed off the rail while chasing in fourth.
While most of the contenders avoided the inside part of the track like it was a bog, Vargas sent Baby Vino right up the rail to challenge Napoleon Solo on the far turn. He exploded into contention, quickly disproving any notion of a bias on the sloppy track to take a short lead at the top of the stretch.
Lopez, who entered the day at Monmouth with a 46 percent win rate at the meet, could feel his first Haskell victory slipping away on Napoleon Solo, who managed to put away Further Ado but struggled to repel his inside challenger. The jockey tried everything to discourage Baby Vino, keeping him in extremely tight quarters on the rail and lightly bumping him without taking anything away from the longshot.
Baby Vino responded to the pressure with some bumping of his own, courageous on the inside under Vargas and surging late. The inquiry sign went up immediately after the race concluded, but stewards declared no change. It wasn’t clean racing, but it was fair.
“Big race,” Vargas said of his duel with Lopez. “Everybody does what they got to do. But I felt him. When [Baby Vino] went through and he hooked that horse on the outside, he just wasn’t backing down. He was gonna fight and he got in front and he wasn't coming back.”
In the end, class never played a factor, and with better track position and the perfect rail trip, the last-out listed stakes winner Baby Vino edged clear by a half-length over the Preakness winner, completing the 1 1/8-mile distance on a sloppy track in 1:50.18.
Baby Vino paid $58 to win, the largest payout in the Haskell since Skip Trial paid $73 in 1985. The $1 exacta with Napoleon Solo paid $153.40.
Bred in Kentucky by Lisa Parks and owned by Cosmo Stables and Delta Squad Racing, Baby Vino is the second horse sired by Vino Rosso to win a Grade 1; the other is the filly Bottle of Rouge.
In the 14th and final race of the day, a first-level allowance, Vargas’s mount was scratched near the gate and he had to walk all the way around the track to return to the jockey’s room. The 31-year-old rider took the long walk under gray skies with a sunny grin.
“It’s a real moment,” Vargas said. “I’ve got to watch the replay because I still can’t believe it. Happy, happy, very happy.”
Vargas, who has ridden in the Kentucky Oaks, Breeders’ Cup, and several more Grade 1s on the East Coast, said he could not have asked for a better breakthrough moment. He has been riding at Monmouth on a regular basis since 2020.
Schultz shares Vargas’s view of Monmouth as a found home, having put together a tidy record in recent years while moving her horses between New Jersey and Oaklawn. She handled Baby Vino fearlessly, and her colt responded with courage all his own in front of a Monmouth crowd of 35,608.
When asked about the importance of being the first female trainer to win the Haskell, Schultz credited veteran trainers Linda Rice and the Monmouth-based Kathleen O’Connell with blazing the trail for her, DeVaux, and many others.
“I think it's just great that these women, like Kathleen O'Connell and Rice, have been around, and they've really opened it up for us,” Schultz said. “It's not different for me to be a woman now, so hopefully I'm the first of many.”
Summers, who came up just short of his third Grade 1 victory with Napoleon Solo, could not have asked for much more from his stubborn front-runner. He finished 3 1/2 lengths clear of Iron Honor, who rallied for third but lacked a winning bid for trainer Chad Brown.
“He beat a really nice group of horses behind him,” Summers said of Napoleon Solo. “To me, this was one of the deepest groups in the Haskell that I can remember from top to bottom. You’re beating some accomplished horses. And we were a clear second, so I’m proud of him. I don’t think he necessarily loved this track but I don’t want to make excuses because we all had to run over it.”
The Puma, who scratched shortly before the Kentucky Derby and was returning in the Haskell off a four-month layoff, closed from seventh but left himself with too much to do. He finished fourth for trainer Gustavo Delgado, a neck behind Iron Honor.
Further Ado, the Cox-trained favorite, finished 1 1/2 lengths behind The Puma and well clear of 76-1 longshot Star Sweeper and Ocelli, the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, who never contended and gave way.
When asked about a next start, Schultz was far from declaring her colt ready for the Grade 1 Travers next month, let alone the Breeders’ Cup. The Haskell win earned Baby Vino a fees-paid entry into the Classic. The Haskell was the clear goal, but he has now reached a dizzying height that will take time to fully process.
“Both of those races are far away, but we're thrilled for the opportunity,” Schultz said. “He’s a nice horse, but this was his biggest effort today. It’s a really big deal to do it in the mud, a surface he’s never been on. We’re over the moon.”
For the first time in several months, Schultz has time with Baby Vino. To get into the Haskell, she had to rush him from maiden company to a Grade 1 race in three months. Keeping him going at this level is sure to be another challenge, but his performance Saturday is indelible. Schultz had it right all along.
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