He got a 104, actually. Bernardini was a hot horse after he broke his maiden; he broke badly and walloped the field, in sharp time. In fact, he trounced High Finance, who came back to win (romp) twice and ran a decent race in the Belmont. At the time, Luxembourg was considered a highly promising colt, so I am not going to denigrate Bernardini's Withers. It didn't matter who he was facing - that was a brilliant performance - that Beyer was earned while the colt was running with no urging whatsoever. Plus, he had missed training time with a virus and a bruised hoof. That Withers performance is just not comparable to MB's allowance race, IMO.

High Finance finished second to last in the Belmont. LOL

My bad, I was thinking of Oh So Awesome. Doesn't matter - my comments still stand

By the way, his winning figure was 102, not 101.

I guess I should move him up as that is a solid number but I still remain unimpressed, but perhaps given that kind of figure I was a little hard on him, especially as a second time starter. However, considering the aggressive campaign they are planning, I will be very surprised if he has an impact on the major 3YO races.

What had Luxembourg done? He was an overrated, overhyped horse who beat a field of GP Mdns. At least Flashy Bull and Racketeer had run in graded stakes. So Bernardini's 104 against a maiden grad was more impressive than Minister's Bid's 102 closing wide on a slow pace against Flashy Bull and Racketeer? Let's face it; take Bernardini out of the Withers and none of those colts would've come close to hitting the board in Thursday's NW1X.

That is not MY judgment of Luxembourg; he WAS highly regarded after breaking his maiden and winning an allowance (and not just by his trainer, either).

We disagree on the relative merits and talents of Bernardini and Minister's Bid, JJP, so I'm not going to get into an argument. Neither of us are going to convince each other.........I'm very, very, very confident in Bernardini and I have no doubts he will beat his 3 year old challengers. If you feel otherwise, that's fine. I'm just not willing to make the leap of faith regarding MB that you are.

Well, Dicksie, not everybody can be as sharp as you.

By the way...Argentina is a money burner ( if you had the $5 you could have bought a Racing Form and seen that ) and Latent Heat will be 2:5.

Awfully kind of you to tout a 2:5 shot. Now THAT takes real genius.

Wouldn't want you to alter this post.