Brilliant Berti looks to stay perfect on the Churchill turf
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Brilliant Berti won three in a row last May and June on the Churchill turf course and made it four wins from four Churchill grass starts finishing with a flourish to capture the May 1 Opening Verse Stakes. Saturday, in the $250,000 Arlington Stakes, Brilliant Berti – the 7-2 second choice on the morning line behind Mercante at 3-1 – probably will be favored, if only moderately, to go 5 for 5.
Eight others were entered in the 1 1/16-mile Arlington, but Herchee was expected to instead start in a May 29 allowance race. That leaves Lagynos, who Brilliant Berti pushed past to win the Opening Verse; Call Protection and Event Detail, who ran one turn in a Churchill turf allowance and look slightly overmatched; Silent Heart, a likely pacesetter capable of much more than he showed last out in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland; and three coming out of the Grade 1 Turf Classic on Derby Day.
Mercante finished second in the Turf Classic, while Cameo Performance checked in sixth and Gigante was a fading ninth. On Beyer Speed Figures, Marcante is the horse to beat Saturday.
A homebred trained by Cherie DeVaux for Richard Klein’s Klein Racing, Brilliant Berti began his 4-year-old season finishing eighth, beaten by Cameo Performance and Gigante, in the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds, a strange race won wire-to-wire by a huge longshot. DeVaux expected the colt to improve in the Opening Verse, and he did, firing a field-best 22.87 final quarter-mile to get up by a half-length over a stubborn Lagynos.
Lagynos ran about as well as the winner, with both horses making the second start of a form cycle. Breaking from post 9, Lagynos and Flavien Prat got stuck three wide with no cover on both turns, then were pushed forward to the lead earlier than ideal, hanging with Brilliant Berti to the final sixteenth of a mile. In the Arlington, Brilliant Berti drew post 9, Lagynos post 5.
“I like the change in post draws, he runs well at Churchill, and he runs well for Prat,” said Steve Asmussen, who trains Lagynos. “And I really like how the horse has gone from 3 to 4.”
Mercante passed a major class test in the Turf Classic, his first turf stakes start of any sort. Leading into the first turn, Mercante wound up tracking from second after Gigante, hung very wide into the bend, then sped forward to take the lead and set the pace. Sitting just off the leader was fine with Brian Knippenberg, who trains Mercante for his breeder, Carl Pollard.
“He does seem to prefer flanking a horse, and he got another beautiful draw out there in the eight-hole Saturday,” Knippenberg said.
Mercante began his career promisingly, training with Bill Mott on the East Coast, but he didn’t race between July 2023 and November 2024. A persistent soft-tissue injury kept him for months at Pollard’s Hermitage Farm, which Knippenberg manages, and it was Knippenberg who nursed Mercante back to the races.
Mercante has produced strong, improving form since his comeback, winning the Grade 3 Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park before the Turf Classic, where he fended off several pursuers through the homestretch, but was tagged late by Spirit of St Louis.
“He’s a really good-feeling horse. He’s been pulling everyone around the barn, training like a freight train,” Knippenberg said.
At odds of 15-1, Cameo Performance was the only horse closing from off the pace in the Muniz, which he lost by less than a length. But after looming at the quarter pole of the Turf Classic, he came up empty.
Racing at Churchill Downs, his owner’s home track, Brilliant Berti hasn’t come up empty yet.
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