Crude Velocity targets Haskell after Woody Stephens runner-up finish

Crude Velocity’s summer took a sharp turn out of Saratoga and toward Monmouth Park, where Bob Baffert now has the colt pointed for the GI Haskell Stakes on July 18. The move says plenty about how high the barn is on the son of Beau Liam: after a runner-up finish in the GI Woody Stephens Stakes, Baffert is not looking for another sprint test so much as a chance to see whether Crude Velocity can turn six and seven-furlong talent into a classic-style route weapon.

The Haskell is a major ask, and that is exactly why it is revealing. Monmouth Park has the race scheduled as a $1 million event for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles, the centerpiece of Haskell Day and the track’s marquee summer attraction. Baffert, who has won the Haskell nine times, called it “a race that’s very important” to him, and he has cited Bayern’s 2014 Woody Stephens-to-Haskell path as the model. That comparison matters because Bayern made the same leap from a seven-furlong sprint to a 1 1/8-mile victory. Crude Velocity, who bypassed the Preakness and was rerouted to the Woody Stephens before this next step, is now being mapped onto that same staircase.

The immediate case for the Haskell comes from what happened June 6 at Saratoga Race Course. Englishman ran off with the Woody Stephens in 1:20.40, equaling Darby Creek Road’s track record from 1978, and Crude Velocity still emerged with credit as the horse who chased home that kind of speed. Baffert made clear he was impressed by the number and the race shape, and he does not want to send Crude Velocity back against Englishman unless the distance changes. That is a telling line in a summer full of route decisions: it suggests the connections see a colt who already belongs among the better 3-year-old sprinters, but may be even better when he has more ground to work with.

The résumé supports the confidence. Crude Velocity was named a TDN Rising Star after breaking his maiden at Santa Anita Park in March, followed that with an optional-claimer win in Arcadia, California, and later beat Englishman in the GII Pat Day Mile on Kentucky Derby day. The Haskell will now answer the next question in that progression: whether sharp, proven speed can survive the stretch into a 1 1/8-mile showcase against the division’s top summer runners. With Nysos also coming out of the Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan Handicap in good order, Baffert’s festival fallout leaves him with a pair of high-profile campaign threads, but Crude Velocity’s Haskell placement is the more aggressive one. It is a clear sign that his team believes the colt’s ceiling is still rising.