Monday Morning Message with Jason Beem July 20, 2026

Jason discusses an interesting and tactical running of the Haskell (G1) from Monmouth Park. 

A good Monday morning to you all! What a busy weekend around the racing world. With Del Mar kicking off, it seemed as though there were big races going off for big chunks of time all weekend. Even when I got home on Sunday and thought things were winding down, the Plate Trial and Woodbine Oaks were being run up north of the border. I mean, it seems like a week ago Book’em Danno won the Mr. Prospector S. up at Monmouth Park on Friday. Just a lot going on. 

This past Saturday’s Haskell (G1) ended up being an exciting upset win as Baby Vino won a hard-fought battle against Napoleon Solo to take the $1 million event. There were a lot of little things to look at and discuss with the Haskell, so let’s talk about it. 

First of all, obviously things shifted a fair bit when Monmouth got deluged with a huge rainstorm around the seventh race on the card. The track was sloppy with some standing water on it very quickly after the shower, and it was sloppy for the big race. 

The first thing I thought was interesting was that Paco Lopez on Napoleon Solo clearly wanted no part of the rail. He could have dropped over as they went into that first turn, but it was clear he didn’t want any part of the rail. 

Interestingly enough, it seemed as though Further Ado had a similar plan; if you watch those first few strides coming to the wire the first time around, he drifted out intentionally towards the four path or so. 

I saw a number of people saying that it seemed like Napoleon Solo was trying to race-ride Further Ado and keep him out, but really, I thought it was Irad Ortiz who elected to go out there. Maybe you could make that argument in the middle stages of the race, but early on, I thought they both just wanted no part of the rail, and Irad decided to take the outside route instead of being inside of Paco. 

Of course, the rider who chose the inside was Jorge Vargas Jr. on Baby Vino, and that turned out to be a winning move. He made that decisive decision and got up in there, and it was clear that Paco and Napoleon Solo – once they realized Baby Vino was for real –immediately came in to keep things tight. On the NBC feed you can see from the quarter pole camera that Napoleon Solo is at least in the three or four path going into the far turn. Just a few strides later, as Baby Vino comes to his inside, he drops right down to the two path. 

The stretch battle was pretty memorable, as nobody else really ran on from the back, so those top two had it to themselves. There are few things that bring me more joy in horse racing than when connections within the sport get their first big wins like Vargas and trainer Lindsay Schultz did with Baby Vino. Seeing their excitement and celebrations in the winner’s circle after the race was truly joyful.

For Schultz, it was her third graded stakes win and first Grade 1 in a career that really began at the start of this decade. For Vargas, it was his first Grade 1 win and 10th overall graded stakes win in a career that has seen him win over 1,000 races since he started riding in 2013. Big congratulations to both on this major milestone win with Baby Vino. 

Have a great week everyone!