Mercante establishes form with narrow win over Brilliant Berti in Arlington
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The 5-year-old gelding Mercante came into the $300,000 Kentucky Cup Classic in March off a narrow second-level allowance win and with a career-best 87 Beyer Speed Figure, and when he pulled off a 13-1 upset, it might have seemed like a one-off, a quick peak from an older horse never to be reached again.
Nope. Mercante just is good. From the Kentucky Cup Classic he went on to finish second in the Grade 1 Turf Classic on Derby Day and on Saturday at Churchill he beat favored Brilliant Berti by a neck to win the Grade 3, $275,000 Arlington Stakes.
Joseph Ramos rode the winner for owner-breeder Carl Pollard and trainer Brian Knippenberg. Knippenberg manages Pollard’s Hermitage Farm and has trained a handful of horses through the years, typically Pollard-owned horses who, for whatever reason, couldn’t make it in the major leagues.
Mercante started his career with Bill Mott, but wound up at Hermitage with a somewhat unusual soft-tissue injury partway through 2023. Knippenberg brought Mercante along at the farm, eventually, he said, straight-up asking Pollard if he might train this horse of higher caliber. Request granted, but when Mercante nearly was ready to race again, his injury flared up, causing another layoff.
Belatedly, Knippenberg’s patience and Pollard’s confidence in his farm trainer have paid off. Mercante hit that peak late this winter and has maintained it into late spring.
The Arlington did not unfold as anticipated. Silent Heart, a sprinter much of his career, looked on paper like he’d go forward, with Mercante, who has speed but runs better with a target, tracking him. Silent Heart came nowhere near the lead, and it was favored Brilliant Berti, typically a stalking, closing type, crossing over from his outside post to lead. Joseph Ramos on Mercante let him go, tracking Brilliant Berti through a moderately slow pace, 24.43 and 48.82.
Around the far turn, Mercante drew closer, and when the two leaders turned for home and after going along at such a comfortable tempo, the race came down to them. Knippenberg, who never had won a stakes race before the Kentucky Cup Classic, has lauded Mercante’s competitive fire, and the horse showed it again Saturday. He collared Brilliant Berti at about the furlong pole, Brilliant Berti battled back, nearly got back on terms, but Mercante would not let him pass.
Lagynos, disadvantaged by the slow pace, closed well from sixth to finish third, a half-length behind Brilliant Berti, the 9-5 favorite. Mercante ran 1 1/16 miles on firm turf in 1:40.69 and paid $8.90.
Call Protection suffered an injury on the backstretch, was quickly pulled up, and was taken off the course on an equine ambulance.
Mercante is by Gun Runner and out of the Honour and Glory mare Caressing, champion 2-year-old filly of 2000. Mercante was bred to be a stakes horse and, belatedly, has proven – no one-off fluke –that he is a stakes horse.
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