Bernardini crushed Brother Derek when they met. I think he could have taken on Lava Man today :)

Weren't there some posters, myself not particularly included, that seemed to think Bluegrass Cat was a very good horse? Bernardini laughed at him.

Believe me, I wish there was better competition for Bernardini, but he certainly seems to be winning with the utmost of ease against these less than stellar fields. No doubt it's unfortunate that Invasor didn't show up today, and/or there wasn't a tougher field in the JCGC, but I can't fault Bernardini. He's at least a very good horse and sorry if I don't agree with the poster who feels he's inferior to both Roses in May and Saint Liam. I think he is a better horse than both of them. Plus he has a different vet than the one they shared.

Agree DTS
 

It is not only who Bernardini beats and what his time is ....
It is much more than that. Not easily explained....
It is how he moves and just the way he races and i have been watching racing for 30 years now....
Obviously he is bred in the purple.
Remember, he is just a three year old with only a handful of races.
He should move up that much more next year if he ever races as a four year old.

I respect people with their opinions and i can accept if you do not believe Bernardini is not the best horse you have ever seen, but to say he is not a great horse is just pure non-sense.

As far as Go Go Gomez goes, he is just in a zone right now. Rides are incredible and is always one to fear no matter what his odds are... Johnny V. had a pretty spectacular day also.....

PSH

Yeah, that ride on Aussie Rules was flawless. I thought the best part was how quickly he righted the horse after breaking slowly and easily mitigated how much it hurt the horse.

I must Admit some of these responses about Bernardini are absolutely hilarious I am Still ROFLMAO over the one "wait till he runs in some real races". Preakness, Jim Dandy, Travers and JCGC. I am Glad I have that straight now that those are not real races.:D

I disagree with it not being fast, it wasn't a total speedway, but it was playing fast, HH set a stakes record in the Vosburgh and the same level Allow Optional Claimers ran the mile fraction a second slower yesterday...

When is the last time that anyone has seen an opening quarter in a non-turf race go 25? I can't remember, I am sure it's happened, but not very often, I hope that a G1 animal could run fast after catching that break. I am pretty sure you could find allowance horses that could run a mile very close to 1:36 with that kind of pace.

Like I said he's the best horse in training, but I think he's going to be in for it, once he gets competition and he has to fight off multiple moves and deal with traffic. Right now the 3 I'll use either for tri or pick 3 or 4 purposes will be Bernardini, Lava Man, and David Junior.

Here's the facts.. Bernardini ran impressively, Lava Man ran impressively.

Period. Anybody thrashing either performance is either biased or delusional.
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May the best horse win on the 4th.

I find it hilarious that there are still Bernardini haters.

Go ahead and bet against this horse on 11/4. I would LOVE it. Give me a decent price on this monster and go home crying like a salty little girl. It would be "classic," no pun intended.

If Bernardini wins the Classic- HE'S THE BEST HORSE SINCE GHOSTZAPPER AT THE CLASSIC DIRT DISTANCES. But he's gotta win the Classic.

That's a silly comment...

I am not a Bernardini hater, I actually made a good amount of money on him in the Preakness, it was tragic, but I cashed hard on him in the Preakness. He's the best horse in training, that I have no doubt, but he's had everything his own way and very little competition. That track was fast yesterday and the opening quarter still boggles my mind, but to say that he had fast mid quarters, well I sure hope so. I don't get the lavish amount of praise put on him for not doing a whole lot right now, he's a very good horse, but he's not a Ghostzapper or Mineshaft yet. Jerry Bailey even made the comment yesterday that it looked like he had to get after Bernardini to put away WB, I didn't notice that, but imagine if he has to do that 2-3 times in the Classic, no one can really say with certainty how he'll react, that's all that I am saying. If you put a large win bet on this horse in the BCC, you are taking a risk I don't think will be worth the odds, I'll use him in exotics and hope he runs out, not likely, but I wouldn't take that kind of large win bet risk on him, because he has not proven himself in that situation...

Its amazing anyone can knock Bernardini. Hes incredible in every sense of the word. As a few posters have noted, the way he moves is unreal. He floats, he doesnt even get out of a gallop for Christ sake. Im sure Javier Castellano, when its all said and done, will tell the world Ghostzapper had nothing on this horse. I mean nothing. This is the kind of horse that makes people realize what a great horse is. This is the best horse since Spectacular Bid, no question about it, how anyone cant see that blows my mind. The last few years there have been some incredible animals come along, Lost in the fog, Henny, Bernardini, Discrete Cat, if those horses dont give you goosebumps, you need to bet football.

Bernardini looks great. Not as good as Mineshaft or LITF imo. I like their running styles much more. But again... thats me.
Bottom line: The horse has not been pushed. I hope he gets his chance to show how good he is.

Reminds me of Larry Holmes in boxing except unlike Larry, he will retire early. Holmes was a great fighter but he boxed AT THE WRONG TIME. There was no one to threaten him, to bring out how good he really was. How many people even know Larry Holmes? How many people know Ali, Frazier, Foreman? The last 3 showed greatness because they were tested. And I think Holmes would be mentioned with all of them if he ever had some competition in his prime.

We may have the same thing here in horse racing. I dont trust Lava Man to run well at Churchill. I dont trust this horse when he has to travel distances. And will that be Bernardini's only competition?

If Bernardini would have gone at Churchill and the Belmont like Smarty Jones, and lost like Smarty Jones did after being doubled teamed and set up. Then I would be more impressed. At least I could say the horse got pushed to the limit and never gave in... That it took Rock Hard Ten AND Jerry Bailey's suicidal act on Eddington to defeat him. If he was absolutely weighted down (the real meaning of handicap) and have a spectacular stretch battle against a once winning Perfect Drift I could say I saw something. And the comparison made is Bernardini beat a beatup Brother Derek in the Preakness...?

But it is NOT the horse's fault that I cant annoint him. Right runner, wrong time. I hope not. But the shed calls, so I personally will never know how good the horse really is. This is really what absolutely sucks. He is gone after the BCC. So all the people who like family trees can play little games with generational charts instead of watching the greatness of an athlete on the track. "I cant wait to see his babies to... uhhhhh, have babies?", please shoot these people somebody. They destroy RACING ON A TRACK.
Just hoping the BCC shows me something more than 4 horse fields and no competition so that the animal can show us how good he really is.

What may actually have worked against this horse sadly is Barbaro's breakdown.

Jerry Bailey thought that Castellano had to work on Bernardini? I was at the track, and I admit that I initially thought that was true. Later, when I read the quotes, I realized that it wasn't that Bernardini had to work harder, Castellano just waited that long to ask the colt. I think Tom is quoted as saying he probably waited too long, lol. When I saw the replay, it was apparent that Bernardini moved easily past Wandering Boy - Castellano didn't have to work a bit.

he is better than ghostzapper. this is a three year old doing this. he just has much better action and unlike ghostzapper, he races every few weeks. this horse is getting faster and he has not been asked for anything.

I won't debate the action, but Bernardini has had his races spaced, he's not run every couple of weeks...

I disagree with it not being fast, it wasn't a total speedway, but it was playing fast, HH set a stakes record in the Vosburgh and the same level Allow Optional Claimers ran the mile fraction a second slower yesterday..
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It was the first time the race has been run at 6 furlongs, so of course it was a stake record.

Not the first time at 6F but about the third so your point is well taken.

I didn't realize that, well that doesn't give much evidence then, so I'll take that back. For some reason I kept thinking it was at 7f, but they said on TV that it was a Stakes Record, sort of misrepresents it, but that's my fault for listening to one of them...

Impressive win. Sorry i'm not overdramatic.

Smarty Jones isn't even in the same league as Bernardini. Bernardini would crush Smarty Jones. Bernardini is a better mover, bigger, faster, better built, and more talented than Smarty Jones. This horse is the best horse since Spectacular Bid. If he wins the BC Classic, he will be #1 on my greatest of all time list. 3 year olds don't crush older horses like he did in the JCGC without even being hit with the whip. Wanderin Boy is no pushover. Invasor was all out to beat Wanderin Boy in the Pimlico Special and Bernardini ran by Wanderin Boy with utmost ease even though he let Wanderin Boy crawl through a 25 opening furlong. I don't need to see the horse run face to face with another horse. I know what he is. A horse that has the fire in his eyes like he does will win the battle. He will literally crush his opponent when they look him in the eye. He will turn them back and make them falter. Bernardini is one of the best moving horses that I have ever seen. In fact, he may bet the best. The competition is ducking the horse. They are afraid of him. Even Lava Man's connections said that Bernardini was scary. He is scary. There is no other way to put it. And he gets better with every race.

He probably won't be headed until he faces Discreet Cat in the Dubai World Cup next year. However, even Discreet Cat won't be a match for this horse at a mile and a quarter. The truth is that Bernardini may never get headed because he is just too good. And yes, I bank on both of them being in the Dubai World Cup if both remain healthy. I really don't think that Bernardini will retire next year.