Baby Vino edges Napoleon Solo in Haskell Stakes upset

Baby Vino turned the NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes into a summer reset, rallying up the rail to catch Napoleon Solo by a half-length on Saturday at Monmouth Park. The result stood after the stewards made no change, and the 28-1 longshot immediately changed the tone of the 3-year-old dirt division.

The $1,000,000 Haskell is one of the sport’s most valuable midsummer stages for sophomores and a Breeders’ Cup Classic Win and You’re In qualifier, which made the finish matter well beyond Oceanport, New Jersey. Napoleon Solo had been one of the race’s headliners and was already viewed as a horse trying to secure a Classic berth, but Baby Vino’s rail-skimming trip on a wet Monmouth surface flipped the script in a race where positioning mattered from start to finish.

Jorge Vargas rode the winner with patience, saving ground before Baby Vino found the seam that decided the race. That inside route was the defining move in a field of seven that also finished Iron Honor, The Puma, Further Ado, Star Sweeper and Ocelli behind the top pair. On a day when Monmouth’s unique configuration and the wet track rewarded tactical discipline, Baby Vino’s late surge looked every bit the product of timing as much as raw ability.

The upset carried even more weight because Lindsay Schultz became the first woman to saddle a Haskell winner, and APP.com noted it was her first start in any Grade 1 stakes. That gives the victory a broader place in the sport’s summer storyline, not just as a form shock but as a milestone for a trainer breaking through on one of the Jersey Shore’s biggest stages.

For the division, the question now is whether Baby Vino is a new star emerging at the right moment or a pace-and-position winner whose trip flatters the form more than the horse. The Haskell often decides which 3-year-olds get a seat at the top table for the rest of the year, and this edition left Baby Vino with the headline, Napoleon Solo with a strong second, and the road to the Travers and Breeders’ Cup Classic suddenly more complicated.