Vino Rosso's Owner Calls For Investigation Into Tactics Used To Win Belmont
The co-owner of horses that finished fourth and last in the Belmont Stakes hopes that officials look into horses trained by Bob Baffert, accusing them of running interference to help Justify win.
Vino Rosso finished fourth and Noble Indy ended up last as co-owner Mike Repole claims that Justify's stablemate Restoring Hope, a 37–1 longshot, purposely used tactics in securing Justify's place in history.
Justify crossed the finish line of 1.5-mile race in 2:28.18, becoming the 13th horse to win the Triple Crown.
Restoring Hope was running in second place right next to Justify for a good portion of the race, but tapered off and finished eighth.
"Justify is a super horse. He is a Triple Crown winner and he’s undefeated,” Repole said to the New York Post. "It definitely seemed to me he was more of an offensive lineman than a racehorse trying to win the Belmont and Justify was a running back trying to run for a touchdown."
Baffert had no problem talking about the strategy to help Justify.
The plan was to sit off Justify," Baffert said, via Daily Racing Form. "He got really rank with him. He had to get away from him so they wouldn't go so fast."
