Baby Vino delivers 1st stakes win for small Arkansas stable
Until Saturday, you might not have heard of Cosmo Stables, winner of the Pegasus with Baby Vino and likely headed to the Grade 1 Haskell on July 18.
Owned by Arkansas businessman Marcus Osborn with his wife, Chrystal, and his father, James, the operation has only four horses, and Baby Vino is their only runner who has won a race.
The stable got its start two years ago when the Osborns bought a yearling and a weanling. Now they’re known as Baby Vino and Maximum Velocity, both out of Discreetly Grand. Baby Vino is by Vino Rosso, winner of the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Maximum Velocity is by Classic Empire, winner of four graded stakes, including the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and 2017 Arkansas Derby (G1).
“My dad and some partners had horses in the ’80s, and I was just a young man and I always had to sit on the back side of the track while they went in because I couldn't get in, wasn't old enough to get in,” Osborn said. “My dad's older now, he's 78, and he said, Mark, I'd like to try to mess with the horses one more time. And so that's how we got started.”
Baby Vino was sent to trainer Lindsay Schultz, and that’s the plan for Maximum Velocity too. “He ought to be ready somewhere for around Keeneland, Keeneland meet hopefully,” Osborn said.
“I ended up reaching out to Lindsay Schultz via Facebook,” Osborn said, “because I've always wanted a lady trainer because I think they're a little bit more attentive than guys a lot of times.”
Schultz said Baby Vino’s 10 3/4-length win Saturday was “very impressive. We're certainly pretty happy with him and excited.”
She said Tuesday that the Haskell is “the logical place to go. We've always liked the horse, and as long as he's training while going into it, that would be the plan.”
Baby Vino’s Pegasus win came after he broke his maiden in his previous start May 1 at Oaklawn in his fifth attempt. Since that maiden win, he had been working at Monmouth.
“He's certainly a developing 3-year-old, but he's a very good work horse,” Schultz said. “We had a couple nice fillies, nice 3-year-old fillies that he would work regularly with, kind of stakes-level fillies. So he's kind of shown his hand in the mornings, but took him a little while to break through in the afternoon.”
Osborn is not thinking much past the Haskell, which is an automatic qualifier for the Breeder’s Cup Classic. “Lindsay's reserved and I'm a dreamer, so she kind of keeps me grounded. But if he were to win the Haskell, (the Breeders’ Cup is) something that would be my dream. We're going to listen to Lindsay. Lindsay's a very level-headed, smart lady, very genuine and a kind person. Seems to have great integrity. So, we're just going to play it by ear and see what happens. We have to go one day at a time.”
The family connection is as important as anything for Osborn.
“My wife Chrystal, she named Baby Vino and and we all caught a bunch of flak from all the guys around the barn, wanting to know who the world named this horse Baby Vino. But she's been a big supporter of me and whatever we wanted to do with the horses, and my dad, co-owner of Baby Vino, It's just something that would be a dream for me to see him, in the latter part of his life, have a dream come true, right?”