Brilliant Berti remains perfect at Churchill Downs with Opening Verse win

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – We will never know how Brilliant Berti would have fared Saturday in the Turf Classic, but it can be said with the utmost confidence he fared very well Thursday in the $350,000 Opening Verse.

Richard Klein’s Klein Racing, the breeder and owner of Brilliant Berti, and trainer Cherie DeVaux entered Brilliant Berti in both spots. The Turf Classic, a Grade 1, looked like a stretch. The Opening Verse, a listed race, looked like the spot. And Brilliant Berti delivered, running his Churchill turf mark to four wins from four starts.

Favored at 9-5 under Brian Hernandez Jr., Brilliant Berti raced from seventh in the early going, then sixth on the backstretch, following the horse he’d eventually have to beat, Lagynos, going to the half-mile pole and into the far turn. Three wide with no cover, Lagynos cut the wind for Brilliant Bertie until Hernandez stoked up his mount, pulling outside Lagynos for a clear run into the homestretch. Portofino, the pacesetter, and Georgie W, who tracked the leader, gave way before the three-sixteenths pole, and the race was on. Fifth and fourth in two of Brilliant Bertie’s wins last season, Lagynos stayed in for the fight Thursday, holding his ground after Brilliant Bertie came alongside him, but in the end unable to hold off the winner.

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Brilliant Berti ($5.74) won by a half-length, clocking 1:34.93 for one mile on a course rated firm. Major Dude finished third, 1 1/2 lengths behind Lagynos, drafting into the stretch behind the eventual first- and second-place finishers but going one-paced when Irad Ortiz Jr. guided him outside for a run approaching the eighth pole.

Brilliant Berti, by Noble Mission out of Believe in Bertie, by Langfuhr, last spring and summer ripped off three straight Churchill turf wins – a maiden, a first-level allowance, and the American Derby – before finishing second to the high-level colt Trikari in the Secretariat at Colonial Downs. Brilliant Berti went to Kentucky Downs and made a fortune for his connections landing the $1.5 million Gun Runner Stakes, capping a $1.6 million season capturing the Bryan Station at Keeneland.

His races at three other venues say Brilliant Berti doesn’t need Churchill turf to show his best, but the colt might not love Fair Grounds. Fifth making his career debut there two Februarys ago, Brilliant Berti returned from a winter layoff March 22 in the $300,000 Muniz Memorial and checked in eighth. DeVaux said she didn’t know what to make of the performance: An 86-1 shot won a slow-paced race in which all the shorter-priced horses failed to fire. DeVaux decided the Muniz was best ignored, a fitness-building comeback that would have Brilliant Berti ready for the heart of his campaign. Hernandez had a different take.

“After I rode him last time, I called Richard [Klein] and said 'I’m sorry, that one was on me,'” Hernandez said. “Instead of leaving the gate and kind of asking him to leave there running, I just let him leave there on his own terms, and then the first two jumps we got covered up and we were way, way too far back.”

Klein, waiting for his horse to enter the winner’s circle Thursday, pointed at Hernandez: “Ten out of 10 ride,” he said. Brilliant Bertie now is 6 for 9 overall, 4 for 4 at Churchill. Choosing the lesser spot this week may lead to bigger things this summer.

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