I couldn't disagree more with a number of points in this thread. First of all, Tom Albertrani is a highly respected trainer and it is my understanding that he is largely credited for the care of Cigar while working with Bill Mott. Anyone who could fool the public into thinking that horse was " great " MUST be damn good.
However, more importantly, I couldn't possibly disagree more about your assessment of Songster. First of all, this horse was clearly FAR from a worldbeater, and his results definitely dressed up his actual talent. He had gotten two absolutely perfect setups in a row and only beat Toomuchbling last time because of that one's poor draw and subsequent problematic trip. He was a proverbial accident waiting to happen. So....what happened yesterday? Prado gave him a terrible ride. Instead of relaxing the horse, he arrogantly sent him WAY to soon, moving to the lead in a very fast pace midway around the turn. Hardly surprising, especially when you consider how badly the other speeds tired ( and neither one of them were terrible horses ), that he tired some late and the one closer in the race was able to make a run. The final time was good and I would say Songster ran a figure reasonably close to his previous races even with the poorly timed ride. The bottom line is this horse had overachieved, and if anything Albertrani deserves some of the credit for this, and he performed admirably considering the way things unfolded yesterday.
I'm impressed with Bernardini, and like you expect him to win the Travers, but I will withhold final judgement until the JCGC and BC Classic. He's a very good horse, though untested, but unlike you I believe Albertrani will work in his favor.
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