Baby Vino romps by double digits in Pegasus S.

Vino Rosso’s 3-year-old colt Baby Vino was a runaway winner of the Pegasus S. June 13 at Monmouth Park, setting up a potential start in the Haskell Inv. (G1) after his dazzling performance in Saturday’s 1 1 1/16-race.

Baby Vino was making his stakes debut after breaking his maiden in early May at Oaklawn. The bay colt was very wide around the first turn before managing to settle in third behind a pair dueling frontrunners. Holding his spot down the backstretch and into the far turn, Baby Vino actually lost a bit of ground midway through the turn, but then commenced a big rally just before entering the homestretch. With powerful strides down the lane, he pulled away from the field to win by 10 ¾-lengths.

“Paco [Lopez] rode him like he was on the best horse and it worked out very well,” said trainer Lindsay Schultz. “He showed us another gear today. He’s maturing with each start. We’ve got a ways to go before the Haskell but he ran pretty well today so we will certainly consider it. That’s the logical next spot if the horse is doing well. We’ll see how he comes out of this.”

The winner is owned by Cosmo Stables and is 2-2-1 in six starts and has earned $194,916. Baby Vino was bred by Lisa Parks in Kentucky and is out of the stakes-placed mare Discreetly Grand.

With six stakes winners and over $4 million in progeny earnings this year, Vino Rosso is second only to Omaha Beach on the Fourth-Crop Sire list.