![\"Bingo's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/084c7121f0cb20424868d739af0c1199.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nIn the midst of what is shaping up as the best year of his riding career, Paco Lopez says he doesn\u2019t pay much attention to statistics or achievements.<\/p>\n
But if he were inclined to do so this is what he would see: A nation-leading 288 wins, a 12th riding title at Monmouth Park wrapped up with one day left in the meet \u2013 and a track record seventh consecutive title \u2013 and a riding title at Colonial Downs, which he clinched on Friday.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI don\u2019t know if this is my best year,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019m doing very well this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
As if he needed to serve up a reminder of his dominance at Monmouth Park, Lopez won three races on Saturday, including the $85,000 co-featured Pinot Grigio Handicap aboard Bingo\u2019s Birkin for trainer Jose Sanchez.<\/p>\n
In the co-featured $1000,000 Presious Passion, a 1\u00bd-mile grass race, heavily favored Dripping Gold, trained by Shug McGaughey and ridden by Samy Camacho, surged late to catch Lopez and Hardspun Reason in deep stretch to win by three-quarters of a length.<\/p>\n
In the Pinot Grigio, Lopez sent Bingo\u2019s Birkin to the lead immediately. After shaking off some early hounding from longshot Allison Park she cruised to a two-length win for her first career stakes win.<\/p>\n
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The time for the five furlongs over a firm turf course was :56.97.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bingo’s Birkin, with Monmouth leading rider Paco Lopez aboard, wins the Pinot GrigioBill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the first time I rode her, which was her last race, she was close to the lead but the early fractions were a little slow. She was able to overcome that and win anyway,\u201d said Lopez. \u201cThis time Jose Sanchez told me `if you break well, let her go.\u2019 Once she made the lead the way she did this race I knew she would be tough to catch.\u201d<\/p>\n
She easily outclassed the other 10 Jersey-breds in the field for her fourth win in nine lifetime starts, improving to 4-of-6 on the grass. Bingo\u2019s Birkin, a 4-year-old daughter of Sea Wizard who is owned Gerardo Franco, returned $4.40 to win.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAs she has gotten older she is getting better. She\u2019s mature and after she won that open allowance in her last race she got a little confidence,\u201d said Sanchez. The first couple of races this year we were in the wrong races because there was nothing for us with her conditions. We didn\u2019t have the conditions we were looking for. So we tried her on the dirt but she didn\u2019t like the dirt. Then I had to run her in an open stakes race because there wasn\u2019t anything for her. That was a tough field.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen her last start she won the open allowance pretty convincingly. This race came up and it fit her perfectly. It feels good to get her that first stakes win. She has come a long way in her past two starts.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Lopez, he is taking aim at his career-best 320 wins, set in 2021. He has racked up more than 4,300 wins since he began riding in the United States in 2007.<\/p>\n
He is also just one riding title shy of Joe Bravo\u2019s Monmouth Park record of 13.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt helps to ride good horses,\u201d said Lopez, who has captured 11 of the past 13 riding titles at Monmouth Park. \u201cI try to win races wherever I go and what comes of it comes of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a good year. I\u2019m feeling great. When you work hard good things can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monmouth Park\u2019s 80th season concludes on Sunday with a nine-race card.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Sep 13, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the midst of what is shaping up as the best year of his riding career, Paco Lopez…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[144473,144472,91464,94845,144471,1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-422693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-birkin","9":"tag-jose-sanchez","10":"tag-monmouth-park","11":"tag-paco-lopez","12":"tag-pinot-grigio","13":"tag-racing","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115200511569742714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}